Water Runs Red
by scribbles-in-the-margins
Summary: MABU An Iruka centric fic. Rated for violence and sexual content. Set before and during the chuunin exam arc. Orochimaru is plotting something, can he be stoped. Kakashi X Iruka
1. Chapter 1

_This first chapter is approx 1000 words, future chapters will be between 2000 and 3000._

_Disclaimer – The characters do not belong to me, although I share the same ability with plants as the creator of the Naruto universe, I share nothing else with him._

_Warning – This story is rated for violence and sexual content. That content will be Slash as well as non-Slash. That means Male/Male as well as Male/Female, if this is disturbing to you, please read something else._

_Pairings – Kakashi X Iruka Izumo X Kotetsu plus To be determined and the order of who is first in the pairings is subject to change_

_Continuity – This starts after the wave country arc but before the conversation between Kakashi and Iruka about Naruto in Vol 4 of the Manga. Future chapters will follow the Manga continuity (which I doubt will be different enough from the anime in the time frame of this to matter)_

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Waters Runs Red -- Chapter 1

Iruka paused before the door to the mission room. It had been a long day. He wasn't sure which was worse, teaching a class of not yet trained ninjas with excessive sharp objects or not getting any sleep due to running a mission for Ibiki-san.

Most shinobi even thought the people chosen to man the mission desk were there because they were 'desk ninjas' a term so nicely coined by the duo of Izumo and Kotetsu. Really for a village like this, so known for dealing in information, you would think someone would figure out there was more to it.

While some of the people who staffed the desk and handed out the scrolls were just shinobi of the paperwork type, those chosen to do the truly menial tasks of sorting scrolls in the archives and filing reports, none of them were what they appeared to be.

Granted they had the rank of chuunin, and unfortunately the pay that went with it. However, they were also the secret resource for T&I. Sure, other shinobi thought maybe the desk ninja chuunin partied too much, and drank too much, but really, who could expect anything different from those who would rise no further in rank than chuunin, and desk chuunin at that. Iruka was in a slightly higher category since he had a respectable job at the academy. Well, maybe not respectable, but at least something that even the jônin had to realize needed to be done.

He sighed as he walked over to the desk. Izumo was staring intently at a pile of paperwork as Iruka slumped into the other chair. The jônin milling around the room while finishing up their reports were unusually quiet. Iruka looked over at the Izumo who just shoved a cup of cold coffee over towards him along with a bottle of painkillers. Without a work, Iruka opened the bottle, or at least tried to. Child proof should not mean chuunin proof, damnit. As he started to attack the bottle with a kunai, he saw the bottle snatched from his hands by a familiar hand.

He looked up to see the gruff form of Asuma, he was about to say something about the man smoking in the mission room, again, but when he realized the man was opening the bottle for him, he just smiled. Well, he tried to smile, the migraine pounding at his head to the point his vision wasn't reliable turned the smile into more of a half sneer.

"Arigato Asuma-san" He downed four of the white pills once the bottle was handed back to him before washing it down with the cold coffee.

Asuma smiled back at him, before quietly speaking, "No problem." It looked like he was going to say something more but just walked back to the rest of the jônin milling around pretending to be working on their mission reports.

Iruka looked over at the obviously hung over chuunin before making an inquisitive noise.

Izumo looked over at him, "Kotetsu is in the file room. He…" He stopped for a moment before carefully picking his words. "He kindly asked everyone to stop breathing so loudly."

Genma looked up from his chair before muttering, "Before you threatened his life if he ever yelled near you again."

Iruka raised an eyebrow. "I see." He leaned his head from side to side, wincing at the too loud popping noise coming from his neck. With that, he started to inquire for mission reports from the various shinobi who were milling around. With new missions handed out and reports turned in the room quickly cleared out. Perhaps it was more from the fact Iruka's normally thorough verification that the reports were filled out correctly was turned into a cursory, open report, make sure there was ink on the pages, close the report.

As closing time for the mission desk approached, Iruka was starting to feel human again. A few hours of relative quiet, copious painkillers, and no children trying to nail the back of his head with shuriken was starting to help his headache retreat. Kotetsu had stumbled out of the file room a while ago and was acting like he was filing paperwork, except he was filing the same report he started on an hour ago.

Then the one person Iruka was seriously hoping was not going to show up tonight walked in. Morimo Ibiki stood in the doorway for a moment before making sure the only occupants of the room were the three hung over chuunin. He walked in and handed a scroll to Iruka. "Good job last night, you three." With that, he turned and left brushing past a grey haired jônin making his way into the mission room.

Not phased by the presence of Ibiki, Kakashi walked over to the mission desk and handed over a report, "Sorry I am late, there was a cat in a tree and …" He paused mid excuse, "You guys look like crap."

Iruka snatched the report from his hand, "We're stunned at your powers of observation Hatake-san, and without even needing to use your Sharingan." He started muttering under his breath, something about even first year students having better handwriting. When he was done flipping through the report, he stamped it successful, placed it in the appropriate pile and waved his hand dismissively at Kakashi, "fine fine, do better next time, yes?"

Kakashi stood there for a moment. Now sure, he and the chuunin had had some arguments before, but this was uncalled for. He reached towards the chuunin's vest but his hand was quickly blocked by the hung-over chuunin. "Iruka-sensei, I can assure you that you do not want to make an enemy of me."

Kakashi's visible eye narrowed at Iruka's response. The shorter chuunin had a challenging tone to his voice "Shinobi-san, just push a little farther and I would be glad to show you how wrong your statement is." Iruka stood up, glaring right back at Kakashi, no blush to his face, just a serious look in his bloodshot eyes.

Suddenly Izumo was standing between the two of them, His wording and tone switching instantly to a deferential and almost painfully formal tone. "Ahhh, Kakashi-san please please don't pay us any mind, it was a very long night and everyone's nerves are a bit on edge, I am sure this will all seem much better come tomorrow." As he spoke quickly, he was trying to guide Iruka back into his chair.

With that, Kakashi left the room, in a swirl of smoke.

Iruka just shook his head and quickly read through the scroll Ibiki left him before tossing it into a metal garbage can, seconds before the jitzu cast on it caused it to burst into fire. "Three of us need to go out drinking tomorrow." He stood up, "I'm leaving. I need to sleep this headache off. I'll meet you guys at your place at 6 tomorrow, don't eat after lunch, I don't want to have to clean off Kotetsu again."

Iruka stalked through the hallway, and out the door of the administrative building. He was so caught up in his headache and the scroll he didn't notice a certain silver-haired jônin following him.

_--------------------- Notes ---------------------_

_Thank you to everyone who has reviewed this, I love hearing from you and am stunned at how many people are reading this. Updates will continue to happen quickly. Please tell me what you think._


	2. Chapter 2

Please see chapter 1 for disclaimer information

Water Runs Red – Chapter 2

Kakashi followed the dark haired chuunin. He stayed farther back than he normally would with someone of lower rank. His camouflage skills were excellent; he had after all been in ANBU for many years. Something just did not seem right to the silver haired man when he thought about how fast the chuunin had reacted in the mission room earlier.

He followed the dark haired teacher to a non-descript apartment building in one of the less populated areas of town. He stayed outside the building as the lights went on in the third floor apartment. He moved closer to the living room window as the lights went off in that room and were replaced by lights in the other room; Kakashi assumed that was the bedroom. Within moments, the apartment was dark, but the silver haired jônin stayed on guard. He wasn't going to risk entering the apartment with the chuunin inside, but he was going to get a good look around wherever the dark haired man wasn't. It was a simple apartment, very neat. The one wall of the living room was dedicated to an impressive entertainment center. Stereo, TV, DVD, VCR, and (if Kakashi was right) even a karaoke machine. There was also a desk with a set of headphones and a very neat stack of student papers on it. The kitchen was visible as well and was empty as far as he could tell from the window with a small table. The only other furniture he could see was a couch facing the TV with several magazines neatly stacked on one of the cushions.

It surprised him that the room seemed to be decorated in reds and browns, somehow Iruka had struck him as more of a blue type … then again maybe it was just because of the name. He left his window perch and went towards the administrative building. He wasn't going to find anything else out tonight about Iruka by watching an empty living room and he didn't have enough information to risk infiltrating the man's apartment. Before he got a block, a thought occurred and he quickly cut his thumb on his teeth to do a quick summons.

Not even waiting for the smoke to clear, he started speaking, "Pakkun, one block back there is an apartment on the third floor. My scent will be near the window. I want you to stay there until I return unless the man inside goes anywhere. If he leaves, follow him but be very careful."

The pug rolled his eyes and scratched behind his ear with one foot. "We're in Konoha, why do you need me to do this for you?" Pakkun yawned giving his master a most unimpressed look.

"I don't know. All right? Something is odd and I don't know what." Without another word to his summons, he tore off across the rooftops to the administrative building.

He wasn't a jônin for nothing and quickly made his way into the Hokage's office. The records room was harder to get into and he knew he had a very limited time before his presence would be able to be detected and this building was patrolled, in fact patrolled by people he himself had supervised the training of.

He grabbed the personnel record for one Umino Iruka and quickly snapped pictures of the pages, not even bothering to read, just getting the pictures so he could get out. It took less than a minute, while Kakashi was quick at such work, the thinness of the file was the real reason he was making his way back towards his apartment less than five minutes after setting foot in the Hokage's office.

He unsealed his door moments later and made sure the traps were disarmed and no one had been in his apartment. Kicking the blankets over towards the futon, he quickly threw the film into the chemical canisters he had and went to grab something to eat after setting a ten-minute timer.

Ten minutes later found him on the floor of his room with still dripping wet film spread out on a towel, hovering over it with a magnifying lens. He was finding nothing. Nothing in the background section except that both Iruka's parents had been leaf nin. Nothing different than most other nin in the village. Graduated near the bottom in the academy, passed his chuunin exam at an average age. It wasn't until he reached the mission records that anything actually interesting was written. The chuunin had been on twelve A ranked missions. All of them were marked as successful. He'd have to go through the actual mission records to be sure, but from the few word notations in the chuunin's file, they didn't seem like standard fare for someone of his rank They appeared to be all information gathering in nature. Then the missions stopped and the notation of Iruka's assignment to the Academy created a demarcation line between the interesting glimpses of the 'A' ranked missions and a horrible boring stream of occasional 'C' ranked missions during the summers. Not even many of those, just a few, it appeared to be the bare minimum to still be considered an active shinobi for the village.

There was nothing in the file that Kakashi had been expecting, no notes of extra training, no applications for Jônin testing, nothing to make the chuunin seem like anything other than just another desk ninja.

He paused to think maybe he was wrong, and nothing was actually odd. Maybe the guy just had a temper that he normally kept hidden. Sure, he was quick, but in a hidden village, good reflexes were the norm not the exception. He darted across the rooftops to check on Pakkun. When he confirmed the human inside was sound asleep and not budging, Kakashi released his summons and headed back to his apartment. He tried to sleep, but it took him an extra long time to actually fall asleep since he was trying to analyze if there actually was anything unusual about the Chuunin teacher of if it was just his imagination.

The next day it was as if the hangover had never happened. A good nights rest, a good breakfast, and a hot shower and Iruka seemed like everyone always expected him to be – polite to a fault and as threatening as a pebble. After the day before, his class was still on edge and acting like they were walking on eggshells every time they had to interact with him. That all changed after lunch. It was Friday, and since Friday was the day where injuries would most be able to heal before the next school day, it was what was affectionately known as 'keep the kids from killing each other day'. Yes, sharp weapons practice.

For the second time in as many days, it was even Iruka's least favorite sharp weapon – shuriken. Yes, twenty some almost nins running around with real weapons. It was going well though, he was on top of his game and was able to easily avoid the misses that came hurtling towards him, although he wasn't sure they were all misses.

Theoretically, the children's weapons should all be confined to their own practice area since there were wall between the fields so multiple classes could be out at the same time. The fourteenth law of teaching pre-nins states that anything that is theoretically impossible, can and will be done if it involves bodily injury.

Thus, when Iruka was lecturing on proper throwing stance, a stray kunai from the next field over ricocheted off the school building and was headed straight for Iruka's back. Even a trained Jônin would probably miss the incoming missile. It's slight noise would be more than drowned out by the chatter of a herd of pre-nin thinking of nothing more than it only being an hour until the weekend on a beautiful spring day when none of them wanted to be learning about proper finger placement on a shuriken.

In fact, the only person who should have known about the impending injury was a lone Jônin sitting on top of said roof watching the chuunin teacher as he instructed the students. That the Chuunin started to dodge the blade before it reached him surprised the Jônin watcher. What surprised him even more was that the brown haired teacher stopped his dodge and instead twisted into the blade with his shoulder.

Kakashi frowned; he saw the man's stance before the blade sunk into his shoulder, most of the impact absorbed by the Chuunin's vest. He knew the man could have dodged it and that there was no explanation for his movement besides having seen the blade approaching him. Then it occurred to him when the teacher dropped to his knees, a shocked little girl standing in front of him. Had the teacher dodged the blade, it would have continued on, right into the face of a young girl he had been showing correct finger placement to.

The Chuunin yelped in pain, and yelled across the wall, "Hey watch it over there! One of your kunai almost impaled one of my students." As Kakashi kept watching, the Chuunin's class was let go a bit early and the other teacher apologized profusely. Finally, Iruka left to head towards the hospital.

Kakashi knew a chance when he saw one and quickly got a few blocks in front of the Chuunin. He made it look like he was walking towards the academy when he saw Iruka headed towards the hospital, "Yo, Iruka-sensei."

Iruka turned towards the silver haired jônin, a hand still holding the bandage on the back of his shoulder and his bloodied vest handing from his weapons pouch. "Good afternoon, Hatake-sensei."

Kakashi stopped in front of the chuunin teacher, "I assume you are headed towards the hospital?" When Iruka nodded, the jônin started walking with him towards the medical complex, "I didn't realize you were on a mission, I thought you were at the academy today. I was on my way there to speak to you about the Genins."

"Fridays are weapons practice days." Iruka didn't say any more as if that explained everything.

The Jônin followed him into the building as Iruka was ushered over to a medical looking chair, Kakashi had been in more than a few similar to it when he needed to be patched up but not actually injured to the point of needing to lie down. "I could talk to you later about them?"

The chuunin smiled, "Oh this is just a scratch, a few stitches and it will be done. What information did you want on your new students?"

Kakashi managed to engage Iruka into a conversation about the three Genins he had been given. While most of the information from their former teacher he had already realized on the mission to protect the bridge builder, some of it did end up being rather insightful and useful. Tidbits like Sakura sometimes could recite back a theory in several different ways and make it sound like she really understood it, but that she sometimes didn't actually understand it until she tried to apply it in a practical situation.

Kakashi kept a close eye on the chuunin as the doctor had him remove his shirt and started to heal the wound on the back of his shoulder. He noted the comments from the doctor about how it wasn't nearly as bad as it could have been and that Iruka had basically gotten hit in the best possible place to take a weapon like that. As he kept talking to the Chuunin, Kakashi walked around to the other side of the doctor doing the repair work.

Speaking of getting hit in the best possible place, now that Kakashi could see the wound on the chuunin from the attack by Mizuki, he saw that one also hit in a good spot. The chuunin was either lucky, or had planned this. The kunai really had entered the Chuunin's shoulder at the best possible place, and now with the man without his shirt on Kakashi could see something else. The long sleeves the man always wore covered the fact he was in much better shape than an academy schoolteacher should be. It wasn't until he glanced at the Chuunin's other shoulder that he saw a surprise. The man had a tattoo on his shoulder blade.

Kakashi flipped his headband up for a second, to make sure he didn't miss anything, but only for a second, he didn't want to be caught in the act of inspecting the man's shoulder with his Sharingan eye. The tattoo was in simple black ink and seemed to be several years old. A few small scars marred it and seemed to have been long healed. The tattoo wasn't anything he recognized as having significance, just three simple symbols, the Kanji for 'Shinnen', of one of the seven virtues, 'faith'.

If the tattoo surprised Kakashi, he was even more surprised when the doctor finished up and Iruka pulled his ripped and blood stained shirt back on. Kakashi was mentally kicking himself for not noticing that the presumably unassuming academy teacher also had his navel pierced.

The Jônin simply digested this information and continued his banter about the students as he walked the Chuunin back to the man's apartment. Now he knew there had to be something odd with this man, and he had to find out what it was. A mystery like this, right under his nose in the village was too much for the jônin to ignore. He couldn't find any more pieces to the puzzle that was Iruka by the time they reached the Chuunin's door. Kakashi was forced to say his goodbyes and start to ponder plan B for finding out information when the Chuunin excused himself into the apartment with excuses of needing to rest after the injury.


	3. Chapter 3

Warnings in addition to chapter 1 warnings: Violence, death, Sexual situations and a major improvement to certain chuunin's wardrobes.

This chapter contains slash implications, that means male/male, if that offends you this isn't the story for you. Future chapters might/will also have female/male or other types of sexual situations so consider this a fair warning (actually more than fair)

Water Runs Red – Chapter 3

Kakashi had been sitting in an empty apartment across the street from Iruka's apartment. The empty unit was a floor higher, but with the slope of the road, most of the Chuunin's apartment was visible. It was getting later in the evening and Iruka was defiantly active in the apartment. He was walking around the main room in a pair of standard pants but didn't have the shuriken holder or the normal thigh bandages on. He had the bandage off of his shoulder and it was covered with some sort of cream, if Kakashi wasn't mistaken, and with the Sharingan in use he rarely was, it was a fast healing cream. It was standard ANBU issue, but how an academy teacher would have gotten some, he didn't know.

A bit before six, Iruka grabbed a backpack, threw on a black T-shirt and left his apartment. Kakashi carefully watched from his observation post and saw him casually making his way towards the main gates. He took a gamble and followed, staying far back as if he were following another Jônin, or even an ANBU member, he was not going to make the mistake of underestimating the chuunin,

Kakashi stayed back as Iruka met up with two other figures at their apartment and made their way to the gate and out of the village without another word. The other two chuunin had also left their forehead protectors evidently. Izumo was dressed in standard issue pants and a bulky sweatshirt. Kakashi couldn't make out what was under the shirt, but something seemed off. Kotetsu was dressed in a pair of beat up looking jeans and black boots. He had a light coat thrown over the top of his frame. Both of the other chuunin were also carrying backpacks.

He followed the three men as they made their way out the front gates, acting as if nothing was up. Maybe nothing was up; maybe Kakashi was just too paranoid for his own good. He followed them about a mile down the road from the main gates of Konoha. Kakashi was about to head back and go through Iruka's apartment when he saw the three men step off the road and huddle together for a moment.

Operating on pure instinct, Kakashi made sure there were no flaws in his camouflage, plus the fact he was several hundred yards back caused him to be pretty sure the three men could not detect him. He watched as the men's attitudes changed from leisurely to business. Suddenly the three took off through the trees in full ninja mode. Kakashi wasn't sure he hadn't been spotted so he summoned Pakkun again so he could keep more distance between the trio and himself. Perhaps if they did sense him, the added distance would cause them to think they had lost their pursuer.

Kakashi took off after his pug, racing through the branches, staying a few miles behind the chuunin group. Kakashi hadn't run this fast for a while, evidently the three chuunin were very fast.

Three hours of the breakneck pace later and Pakkun paused, "They've stopped. A mile ahead."

Kakashi nodded to his summons and carefully made his way towards where the chuunin were. He could barely see them, but what he saw surprised him. The backpacks and a lot of the extra clothing were being shoved in a hollow by a tree. Kotetsu was still wearing the same beat up jeans and black boots, but his jacket was gone revealing a long sleeved shirt made up of leather and buckles, a lot of buckles. The marks on his face weren't the normal marks either. They had been altered and were black against the chuunin's face. Kakashi wasn't sure if it was a permanent modification or if it was temporary. His hair was just as wild as always though, but it flopped down more without a headband to keep it up.

Izumo on the other hand had pulled off his standard pants and was wearing leather that looked like it had been painted on. Low slung black leather pants gripped his legs and Kakashi didn't even want to think of how long it took to pull anything that tight on. When he took off the sweatshirt, all he had under it was a mesh tank and a dog collar around his neck.

The two were crouched down in the dirt watching whatever Iruka was tracing into the dirt. If it weren't for Iruka's actions, Kakashi would almost think he had stumbled upon three chuunin going off to let off some steam, but it was too organized.

Iruka was dressed in a way he would have never expected the academy teacher to appear, not in dreams and especially not in reality. The man had his hair down and it was moving softly in the breeze, when not in the ponytail it was just past his shoulders. All Kakashi could see was the man's back, but it was impressive. He had on dark brown leather pants. The leather was the same dark brown as the chuunin's hair. The pants were tight, but not as tight as Izumo's and Iruka's had various buckles and even an occasional pocket. The man was also wearing a loose dark red shirt. When the three got up to head towards the town in the distance, he saw Iruka also had a dog collar around his neck, complete with a D ring hanging off it. There was an extremely tight black shirt under the loose red shirt. The overall appearance of the men looked nothing like the ninja he knew they were.

Kakashi knew he could catch up with them now that they were walking like normal people and not the ninja they were, so he waited for them to reach the town before making his way over to their bags to search for any clues. The bags had nothing in them that answered any questions. The discarded clothes were in there. Shuriken and Kunai were in there. The only interesting thing was when he got to the med kits. Each man had brought a fully stocked med kit. The kits were geared towards poisons. Every anti poison and toxin Kakashi was used to ever seeing in a kit was in there, several of them in double doses. One antidote in Iruka's bag was already empty and from the moistness of the vial, it was within the past few minutes.

He frowned slightly, still not knowing what was going on. He set off towards town, using all of his skills to keep from being seen. Soon Pakkun had him across the street from an old warehouse. It appeared to be a bar or club of some sort and Kakashi could feel the bass of the music playing much too loud. "What do you smell?"

The pug wrinkled his nose. "Those three are in there, but that place stinks. Only you humans would like a place like that."

"What do you mean?" There were few places the pug complained about, and besides the place looking dirty he didn't see anything else about it right off hand, he was going to wait for his summon's answer before using the Sharingan though.

"It stinks. Drugs, alcohol, sex and blood. It just stinks of it." The pug lay down at his master's feet.

Kakashi nodded and pulled back his forehead protector revealing the Sharingan eye. The building was covered in spells to dispel illusions and detect weaponry. It would be exceptionally difficult for anyone, even himself, to sneak into that building with an illusion in place. As he was, he was much too conspicuous to walk in without one.

The people he could see coming and going were of both sexes, dressed similar to how the three chuunin had been. With the Sharingan, he could see how fried their chakras were. Few of these people were ninja, or at least were still ninja. A few definitely fit the picture of burnt out ninja too lost in drugs or alcohol or some other vice to realize they were slowly killing themselves. Others were without even the excuse of having been ninja to justify their slow suicides. Kakashi saw what his pug meant about this place stinking.

This was a place where human life meant nothing because no one there valued his or her own life. He watched the people enter and leave the club for a while trying to decide if he should make his way in. Just as he was about to risk it, he saw Kotetsu leave the building followed quickly by Izumo. Several other people left at the same time.

In the crowd, he saw Iruka being led out by a larger man. The academy teacher was headed in the opposite direction as the other two chuunin and Kakashi was faced with a choice of who to follow. He followed the teacher, not trusting the man who was with him. Iruka was shoved into an alley a few blocks from the club and was being roughly pushed up against the wall by the larger man. The large man had his fingers looped in the collar around the teacher's neck and was pinning him to the rough stonework with a very forceful kiss.

Kakashi was about to rush to the teacher's rescue when he saw the unexpected. The teacher's leather clad legs were wrapping around the other man's waist and he was submissively allowing the larger man to manhandle him to the dirty alleyway pavement. The teacher's only aggressive maneuvering was in evidently trying to get his tongue as far down the other man's throat as possible.

Kakashi was frozen in place. This was crazy. Iruka-sensei was a respected teacher at the academy. He was the former teacher of his three young genins. The children always spoke of this man as if her were a saint of perfect morals. This so-called saint was being pressed down to hand pavement by some brute about to ravish tender teacher flesh, and Iruka wasn't fighting, no he was encouraging. Iruka's entire body was enveloped in an aura of sexuality. The movements of his arms and legs and how he arched his back was screaming sex, and the noises coming from the teacher's throat were primal enough that even Pakkun shifted uncomfortably.

Then suddenly the man stopped moving. Iruka's hand flitted to the larger man's throat and then his leg came up under the man's side to heft him off to the side. A very rumpled looking Iruka arched his back and stretched. Before looking at the dead man next to him, the teacher then took his shirt and started to systematically clean his own mouth, scrubbing teeth and tongue with the soft fabric. Wrapping the shirt around his waist, he checked the man's pockets and quickly pulled out some papers and a wallet. The teacher pocketed the items and then quickly adjusted the other man's clothes. When Iruka stood up, even Kakashi who had seen everything that transpired would have to agree that it really looked like the man passed out and died after having sex in the alley.

Iruka moved his head from side to side, cracking his neck and then started to walk away from the scene. Suddenly he stopped and turned to look up. Kakashi thought he had hidden himself well enough. He stayed motionless, hidden behind an archway, the pug close to him, covering his presence too. He didn't dare move; even breathing was an almost unacceptable risk. He stayed perfectly still until the pug in his arms said, "He's gone."

Kakashi nodded and checked out the dead man, he could barely detect it, but the man's mouth smelled like poison. Oddly enough, it was a poison that the antidote that was empty in Iruka's med kit would counter act. It was also a poison that would be completely broken down within an hour and undetectable.

He took off towards where the three chuunin had left their packs, fully expecting it to be empty by now. This was definitely odd. He wasn't sure what was going on, but he knew something was definitely not normal about those three.

When he got there all he saw was a small burn patch of ground. Everything the chuunin had left was long gone. It was late, and he had to report to the Hokage in the morning and train his team when he decided to show up. He took off through the woods at the pace most comfortable for him, trusting in Pakkun to alert him if he was catching up with the chuunin, but someone feeling he'd really have to rush to manage that feat.

When he got back to town, it was late, some horrible hour of the morning. He went back to his apartment and crashed onto his bed, thinking through in his mind what happened and what was going on. Mostly he couldn't get the thought of Iruka out of his mind. He had never really thought of the man before this. He was just some boring teacher at the academy and only useful for information on his team. However, this changed everything. He'd work his resources in the morning and see what he could find out. The Chuunin seemed to know everyone; it couldn't be that hard to find out some dirt on him. Finally, Kakashi fell asleep for a few short hours.

---------------- NOTES ---------------------------------

Sorry I had to go an edit this chapter to have the man die, since it's crucial it was an assassination mission for further story events

I know Iruka is seeming a little kick butt right here, but his weaknesses will become more apparent.


	4. Chapter 4

_Thanks for everyone who is reading this. I am loving hearing from people about what they think. I know feedback whore and all._

_Poor Kakashi, presented with a mystery and he's having such a hard time figuring it out._

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Water Runs Red – Chapter 4

Saturday afternoon and Kakashi had dismissed his team early after spending several hours 'quizzing' them on their academy time. If anyone realized that it was more quizzing on Iruka than the academy, they didn't show it. He started to stalk out other jônin then to see what they knew. Tracking down Gai was easy, and after promising to accept a challenge next time they met, he extracted all the information on Iruka from Gai that he could. Basically, that was worthless since Gai also seemed to only know the same side of Iruka the Genin had known -- the saint like personification of patience and discipline. Not the type of person who Kakashi thought would have a tattoo, a pieced naval, or be at a club like the one he had staked out last night.

Asuma was similarly useless. However, that proved to be the break Kakashi needed. He was sitting with Asuma talking about the 'education' the Genin had received at the academy when Asuma's apartment door opened and Kurenai walked in.

She immediately started to make some excuse for why she was just walking into Asuma's apartment. When Kakashi just shook his head, "Kurenai-san, it is fine. I was about to leave." With that, he stood up and started making his way to the door.

Asuma shrugged, "Yeah, sorry bout that Kakashi, I know nothing about how things at that academy go."

Kurenai looked at the men, "And neither of you remembered I substitute there occasionally?"

Kakashi smiled, "I had a … disagreement with a former teacher for my team."

Kurenai nodded and walked over to the fridge to grab a bottle of water, "I heard. Evidently you violated one of the rules."

"Rules?" Now Kakashi was confused.

"Never point out to Iruka-kun when he looks like hell." She smirked a bit and sat down on the couch.

Asuma simply mouthed 'kun?'

Kakashi scratched at the back of his head idly. "I see, evidently I was not given this rulebook."

"Oh no wonder, it doesn't happen like it used to evidently. Kotetsu and Izumo would be better sources of information. Or he used to hang out with Anko for a while. I think Iwashi got in trouble with those guys a few times too."

"Sources of information about what?"

She shrugged, "I don't exactly know." Now both men knew this had to be good from her tone. "Evidently, Iruka-kun isn't just all adorable innocence. The boy has a temper in him and a surprising tendency for an academy teacher to over indulge in certain things and end up in pain the next day."

She smiled at the two men who were listening to her, "It's well known that group throws the best parties in Konoha." She smiled as the men exchanged glances as if to see if the other knew about these parties. "Anko was telling me I should go to one next weekend, but I was saying I wouldn't really know anyone there. She told me I shouldn't worry; a lot of people would be there."

She smirked as she the men glance at each other, "I assume neither of you were invited?" She laughed a little, "I can extend the invitation to anyone I want, as long as they are too old to have been one of Iruka-kun's students." Quickly plans were made that the three of them would meet at Asuma's the next Friday and go to the party together.

After that, Kakashi made his way into the administrative building. It was an early Saturday afternoon -- before the daylong missions would be handing in reports and after the morning rush to hand out missions. He was not surprised to see the mission room mostly empty. The only person in the room was Iruka, looking very bored staring intently at a potted plant. Possibly the man was asleep with his eyes open.

Kakashi kept walking past the room. This was a perfect opportunity. With no one that could relieve him from the desk, the Chuunin was in a known location for at least the next hour, assuming someone showed to relieve him then. With a quick summons, Kakashi left Pakkun (who was getting a little irritated at being summoned so often for nothing that appeared life threatening) and had him agree to alert him if Iruka left the building.

With that, Kakashi ran off to Iruka's apartment. This was his chance to go through the place and see if he could find any more clues. The door was well sealed, as were the windows. The weakest part of the security, and it was definitely better than anything a chuunin should have, was the bathroom window. After undoing a few traps and being careful of a few others, Kakashi managed to make his way into the chuunin's apartment. Since he was in the bathroom, first he started there.

It was a small bathroom, but still large enough for a tub. As he started to go through the room, he made a startling discovery – Iruka owned more stuff for hair care than anyone else that Kakashi knew of. He had been in ANBU for years and had patched himself up in many people's bathrooms, many of them female even, so this was no small accomplishment. The man had several shampoos, conditioners, treatments, oils, and at least 12 different types of hair color that were stashed under the sink in colors from black to blond. There was also an impressive array of medical supplies, especially anti-toxins.

It was definitely getting interesting. He made his way out into the living room. The red and brown room reminded him of Iruka's outfit the other night, right down to the brown leather of the couch. Come to think of it, Kakashi didn't know anyone else, well except Anko, who had a leather couch. He flipped through the CDs on the entertainment center and noticed the TV was little used if the dust on the remote and screen was any indication. The CD's and CD player on the other hand were spotless. Half the CDs appeared to be amateur and the other half were mostly bands he had never heard of. Nearly all the CDs had numbers after all the songs that Kakashi quickly figured out from some of the professionally produced ones stood for beats per minute, but all the numbers seemed high for that.

Tearing himself away from the music, he looked at the stack of magazines on the couch. Teaching supplies, weapons magazines, nothing of any interest. Same for the kitchen, unless you counted left over take out ramen that looked like it was about ready to demand admittance to the academy. The last place he looked was in the cabinet over the fridge. Most people don't keep that cabin ate locked, but Kakashi quickly had it opened. A small liquor store of bottles, most half empty was shoved in there to the point of almost pressing the doors open from their weight. Interesting, but after the hangover situation, Kakashi already knew the man drank, so while the quantity was surprising, it wasn't information he was looking for.

That only left the bedroom. As Kakashi pushed open the door, this is not what he expected in a teacher's bedroom. The wood floor was empty except for a futon in the corner and a chest of drawers. For some reason it seemed like this was a room no one else ever saw. The living room was decorated, stylish, and comfortable. This room was bare white walls with one wall covered in mirror squares. Kakashi flipped up his forehead protector to study the wear marks on the floor. He was right; they exactly matched wear from repeated practice of the katas the academy teacher would be teaching to his students.

The bed was covered in deep red blankets but nothing of interest was there. The chest of drawers yielded more interesting items. In addition to everything a person would expect to find. There was another drawer full of traditional clothing. Kimono, Yukata, hakama and several types and colors of sashes. The bottom drawer was full of very non-traditional clothing. Just as he was thumbing through leather pants, and mesh shirts various leather collars and accessories, Pakkun appeared in a puff of chakra smoke next to him.

Without a word, he grabbed the pug and evaporated in a cloud of chakra smoke to materialize in his precious hiding spot with a view of Iruka's living room. Soon he saw the teacher enter the apartment and throw a bag with take out on the floor in front of the couch. The figure disappeared for a few minutes to reappear wearing only a pair of faded grey sweatpants. Kakashi watched the chuunin sit in front of the couch and fiddle with the remote for the stereo for a few seconds before eating the yakatori had had in the take out bag.

After two hours of watching the chuunin do nothing except listen to music, or meditate, or possibly sleep, regardless, the man didn't move for the next two hours from in front of the couch. Kakashi raised up his headband to see if there was anything that he was missing. The jônin's dark eye widened as he took in the scene in the living room, he was watching a clone. "Pakkun? Is he still in there?"

The pug just nodded, "Yeah." He smelt the air, "I can't tell exactly where, but he's still in the apartment someplace." They stayed like that, now ignoring the napping clone form in the living room. Kakashi wasn't sure when he had been fooled, but all he could do was wait for the chuunin to appear.

Eventually Kakashi had to leave, he had a mission to do the next morning with his team, but he'd be back soon. When he came back into town three days later, how his team managed to turn that simple retrieval mission into a three-day event, he had no idea, but when he came back he quickly changed and made his way back to the empty unit to see if he could catch sight of Iruka.

It was late in the evening and there was a good chance the teacher would be in his apartment. When Kakashi reached the empty unit, he noticed something odd. There was a wrapped present sitting by the window. Instantly the Sharingan eye was exposed and he was inspecting the item for anything suspicious. Not seeing anything, he summoned Pakkun.

The pug took one look at where he was – again and sighed, "Are you still on about this?" Then he sniffed the air and looked towards the package. "Then again this could be worse."

"What's in there?" Kakashi was eyeing the package suspiciously.

"Smells like biscuits, liver and chicken unless I am mistaken" Pakkun was never mistaken when it came to food. "Not poisoned and smells like that man you've been following."

Kakashi opened the package, carefully, finding exactly what Pakkun said would be in there. A nicely packaged bag of gourmet dog biscuits. He handed them over Pakkun and frowned. The lights were on in Iruka's apartment, but he couldn't see anyone in the living room and everything looked exactly as it had.

He couldn't keep using this spot obviously if he had been discovered, so he left for his apartment to regroup his thoughts. Maybe the best bet would be just to ask around a bit and wait to see what happened at the party.

------------------------

Thanks to Damien Courtes, CuriousDreamWeaver, Snow887, and everyone else who has reviewed – special thanks to DC for the outfit ideas


	5. Chapter 5

Warnings – Drunken Shinobi doing things that some people might object to. Sexual situations, kissing, etc M/M M/F whole big long list of alphabet soup so if you might be offended -- something else might be better for you.

Since the episode on TV Tokyo this week still had shinobi in those uniforms covering too much of their bodies, rest assured, Naruto and associated characters are not in any way mine.

Thanks for those that have reviewed; I do love seeing the little messages

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Kakashi had met Kurenai and Asuma as planned at Kurenai's place. They were dressed casually and had the 'presents' they were instructed by Anko to bring. Evidently, dress was 'casual and something that you aren't too attached to' – Kakashi thought the sound of that was rather ominous and Kurenai refused to tell Asuma why she thought it was so amusing. Asuma for his part couldn't see what a party could entail that could possibly risk clothing being destroyed. When Kurenai added 'or lost' to that sentiment, Asuma didn't do more than brush her off -- Kakashi paid careful note to it.

It was with this knowledge that the three of them were making there way to a section of Konoha far from the main gate. Jeans and T-shirts for the men and Kurenai found a red dress in the back of her closet. Kakashi by the time they reached their destination was well aware it matched the red of her eyes; every block it seemed Asuma found a reason to mention that it matched her eyes.

Since evidently 'work clothes' of any sort were frowned on at this even, they had also left their forehead protectors at home. Kakashi had improvised with a black piece of cloth to wrap around and cover the Sharingan eye; actually, it more than slightly resembled a forehead protector without the metal part. Ok, it was an old forehead protector of his that had the metal part damaged a while back, but he really didn't think that counted as violating the no 'work clothes' rule.

Each of them had a bottle of alcohol with them, which according to Anko was the appropriate thing to bring to this party. All Anko had told them was that a lot of people would be there. They stopped outside the building. It was an empty warehouse in an area with many warehouses. This one in particular was often rented out for 'indoor practice' for the genins. This did explain why Kakashi hadn't been able to get the place for practice two weeks ago.

The building right now was practically shaking with the bass from the music inside. From previous visits, Kakashi knew the building was split into a large main area and a mock up of a hotel in the back, the back half was to practice room-to-room searches and stealth techniques and the open area to practice confined combat. It sounded like the party was taking place in the main open area, which made sense, "A big enough crowd to justify this much room?"

Kurenai just nodded, "Evidently they've had to scale back after … and I quote 'the one year'"

Asuma lit a fresh cigarette, "The one year?"

Kurenai just nodded, "I have no idea. Anko let that slip this morning."

Kakashi nodded and was the first of the three to walk through the door into the building. They had decided on being slightly late, 'normal person late', not 'Kakashi late'. Unfortunately, they had ended up being more 'Kakashi late' than 'normal person late' since Kurenai took longer than expected to get ready

The inside was louder than the outside – by a lot. Kakashi had managed to forget that the building was sound proofed in order to not disturb the neighbors when there was training going on. The room was lit with various colored lights, mostly reds and purples with some white light over by a counter top that was obviously functioning as a very very well stocked bar.

The room was packed. There were by Kakashi's count at least 100 people here, many of which he knew, and many of which he didn't know. Kurenai lead them over to the bar where piles of bottles were, some still bearing the bows and such that came with the presents and everywhere he looked, he saw people talking, drinking, or dancing, or all three. The music was almost too loud to hear, it was more felt. Overall, for a nin used to running through the forests listening for the slightest sound, it was disorientating.

Some Chuunin that Kakashi didn't remember the name of were staffing the bar, or potentially drinking the stock, either way the piles of alcohol were huge and whatever two bartenders went through couldn't affect it much. As they were approaching the bar, suddenly they heard "Kurenai-chan!" yelled from a very close range, with the music anything farther than five feet away would have been nothing but background noise.

As Asuma mouthed 'chan?' Kurenai quickly had a very drunk Anko slung over her shoulders. That was one thing about Anko, get some drink into her and the concept of personal space went right out the window. Anko grabbed onto Asuma's sleeve and pulled him in closer, "Did you guys just get here? You need to drink something!"

She quickly took the bottles from their hands and shoved them over the bar and grabbed them drinks. Anko evidently was not happy until all three jônin were carrying small plastic cups of alcohol with a slight amount of mixer, or possibly just ice cubes that were melting rather fast due to the heat caused by a hundred some bodies in an enclosed area.

Kakashi was keeping tabs on his companions, but also trying to scan the crowd for the person he was trying to watch. Anko pulled them to a table a little ways away from the impromptu dance floor, "It's a good turn out this year." Anko gestured at the crowd, as if three jônin could miss one hindred some loud and drunk people.

Kurenai smiled, "I didn't expect this much." She was looking around.

"Oh hell, this is the perfect time of year for a party." Anko laughed, "We just always do this during the spring break since it's normally a dead time of year and none of the teacher's have classes. Well actually It used to be because –we- didn't have class back before the alcohol part was legal" She was raising her glass to her mouth when a hand sneaked around her and Kakashi discovered the object he was searching for was suddenly leaning over Anko's shoulder and gripping her glass.

"Hey Koko, I heard my name." The chuunin was wet. It was beyond sweaty to just wet. His red shirt was dark, dark red it was so soaked. The brown leather collar he wore around his neck was even covered in sweat. His jeans were clinging to him in ways denim normally didn't cling to thighs. Iruka evidently also had lost the concept of personal space. He drank back the rest of Anko's drink; obviously already well on his way to drunk and smiled at the three jônin sitting with Anko, as he stayed draped over her.

"Nice to see you guys make it. Ibiki threatened to break this up at 3 by the way, just so you know." The chuunin was breathing hard and his face was flushed, but instead of from the normal embarrassment, it seemed to be just from exertion.

Before anyone at the table could comment, Izumo was suddenly in Anko's lap. Definitely personal space was a foreign concept at this party, "hey hey Ruka, whatcha doing, you're supposed to be dancing."

"I was stealing alcohol, you bastard." Iruka laughed as he insulted Izumo. Before anyone could mention they were seeing Izumo without Kotetsu, the other half of that duo was gripping Iruka's arm and pulling him off of Anko.

"Ruka-chan! Izu-chan won't dance with me!" Kotetsu was more drunk than either of the other two chuunin, possibly more drunk than those two put together. Evidently, when Kotetsu was drunk, he wanted to dance.

Asuma's mouth was hanging open as he gave up mouthing the pet names and endings.

Iruka just laughed and grabbed Kotetsu and pulled him a few feet closer to where people were dancing. Well it kind of was dancing. More a bumping, pressing, and grinding type of motion, definitely no normal ninja respect of personal space. Iruka grabbed Kotetsu and started to dance with him in a way that caused Kakashi's visible eye to widen.

This was the second time Kakashi had seen how Iruka's body movements could scream sex and it was not any easier to believe the transformation this time than the last. As he writhed and twisted in time to the pounding bass of the music, pressing up against Kotetsu in the most surprising ways, Kakashi couldn't help watching. The other Chuunin reciprocated the motions, not as well, but surprisingly agile for being as drunk as he obviously was. Although their actions were not much different from how everyone else was dancing, somehow the motions when Iruka did them just seemed more primal.

Something about how Iruka's eyes closed when he danced, half opening them occasionally to watch his dance partner with a satisfied, comfortable look. His body was sure in every movement. How he touched Kotetsu occasionally, the motions looking accidental but graceful. How he touched himself, his hands ghosting over his own thighs and arms. He moved with an aura of someone who extruded confidence.

Kakashi found himself ignoring the events at his table, which was basically Izumo sitting on Anko's lap while he leaned way too far onto the table to talk to the three jônin and try to convince them to drink more and dance. Kakashi just kept watching how Iruka's obviously toned body moved in his sticky wet clothes. The shirt was gripping his chest. It had slipped up a bit as the man twisted in time to the music and the shiny navel ring could be seen decorating a thin strip of bare skin. Really, it wasn't true that all Jônin were attracted to shiny things, well maybe Kakashi was attracted to that particular shiny thing. (1)

Suddenly Kakashi found himself listening to the conversation at the table as Asuma asked, "When did they become a couple?" He gestured off at Iruka and Kotetsu with a smoldering cigarette.

Suddenly Kurenai frowned, "Yeah, I thought Iruka was seeing that girl at the hospital, what's her name, with the short blonde hair?"

Izumo looked over at Asuma, "Nah, Tsu-kun is just playing around." With an almost jealous look, Izumo dragged himself off of Anko's lap to head over to Iruka and Kotetsu leaving Asuma to mouth 'Tsu-kun'.

Anko shook her head, "No, I think that blond lasted a week. Oh you mean the other one, the tall one?" When Kurenai nodded her head, "Oh, I don't remember how long that one lasted. She sucks in bed from what I hear, but she was hard to dump."

"You seem to know who Iruka is with rather well?" Kakashi was surprised at the directness of his question. Half of his attention was on Anko's reaction and the other half was on the three chuunin behind her. Izumo had reached Kotetsu's other side and was evidently trying to dance or seduce the messy haired chuunin back to him. Iruka saw the almost jealous look on Izumo's face and laughed. Iruka reached out, pulled Izumo into a kiss, Iruka's fingers gripping the collar of Izumo's shirt, before disengaging from the smiling other man with a quick nip at his upper lip. Iruka than pushed the two other Chuunin into each other and walked back to the table with a laugh.

Kakashi blinked as his mind registered what Anko said while he was watching Iruka kiss Izumo, "_They_ are talkative after sex?" He repeated her answer back to her as if he misheard. Between Iruka dancing and Iruka kissing Izumo, Kakashi was having a hard time paying attention to anything else.

Anko smiled as she stood up to let Iruka sit down, "Well Kotetsu is the real talker." She sat down on Iruka's lap as soon as he sat in her chair, "Ruka is more the 'destroy the alarm clock' type."

Iruka laughed, "And Anko is the kiss and tell one – of course that's mostly talking to whoever at the hospital is stuck doing the stitches." He giggled, yes giggled, a bit as he looked around the table, "This is the first one of these you've been to right?" He smiled, "Relax, it's all just fun. Most people don't even remember anything the next day anyways."

Suddenly something caught Anko's attention and Iruka turned to look, Kakashi wasn't sure who or what Anko was looking at but evidently Iruka knew. "Thought you'd like that Ko-chan. He's one of Ibiki's so don't forget your lock pick set." Iruka swatted at Anko's butt as she quickly left in search of the man that caught her attention.

With that, the Iruka laughed and smiled at the jônin (who were jônin and managing to hide their surprise rather well), "Welcome to our Annual party." He smiled over at Kakashi, "Oh I forgot to ask you. Did your dog like the treats?" His face stayed perfectly unreadable as he rested his elbows on the table, leaning forward to rest his chin on his hands. The chuunin looked straight at Kakashi's visible eye, watching for any reaction, but keeping his tone light and conversational.

Asuma and Kurenai were looking from Iruka to Kakashi as if sensing there was more to the conversation than there appeared, but unsure of what.

Kakashi nodded, "Pakkun wanted me to thank you for them when I got a chance." He kept the visible parts of his face expressionless as he watched Iruka smile and nod.

"Next time you are over, you will have to let me show you around." Iruka smiled as he stood up, but Kakashi knew that he had to know about the search of his apartment. "I better go and find someone to dance with. If I asked Kurenai-san to join me, I would fear for my life." He smiled, "Perhaps someone should ask her though." With a pointed look to Asuma he bowed and headed back into the throng of dancing bodies, effortlessly moving in time to the music has he slipped between people making his way deeper into the crowd.

Asuma blinked, "Anyone else feel like they haven't drank enough for this party yet." He left for the bar without pausing to notice both Kurenai and Kakashi were watching Iruka leave.

Kurenai snapped out of it first and glanced over at Kakashi, "Was that extremely unexpected or what is just me."

"I expect some craziness from Anko, but the other three. I definitely underestimated Iruka." He looked out at the dance floor where Iruka disappeared.

"I didn't realize he could flirt like that, I thought Anko was exaggerating." She laughed as she finished the drink in her cup, "Then again I didn't think many people could flirt like that, at least and get away with it."

Kakashi turned and looked at her "I want to know where he learned to move like that. There is something unusual about him."

Kurenai nodded, "He's good in a physical fight too from what I hear, the boy knows his body and if comfortable with it evidently. If his chakra level wasn't as low as it is, that one would be a Jônin without a doubt."

"Low?"

She nodded, "He barely made it to Chuunin. I mean he's a great teacher for the kids and everything, but I wouldn't want him with me on a mission."

Kakashi was trying to think of a response, his normal quick wit failing him as Asuma placed cups and a bottle of alcohol down on the table. He poured clear liquid into the three cups before sitting back down. Kakashi took the arrival of drinks to let himself think of a plan and sipped at the too potent liquid in the cup.

Asuma lit another cigarette, "I feel too damn old here."

Kakashi looked around, "You're what, four years older than most of the people here?" He didn't bother to keep the confusion out of his voice.

"Yeah," Asuma looked around, "But we missed this whole thing. You missed it by a lot. After the fox and all some of the classes after mine were a bit…" He trailed off looking for the right word.

Kurenai finished off Asuma's sentence, "Wild."

"Wild?" Kakashi looked around and started to notice something. Almost all the leaf nins he recognized in the crowd were ones that had lost at least one parent in the fox attack. Many of the other people in the crowd seemed familiar as well. Then it started to click, a lot of them resembled ninja he had fought with in the war or in the demon fox attack – ninja that hadn't come back. He nodded, "I think I understand."

After the fox attack, the village had been very short on manpower so Kakashi had found himself on undermanned missions almost constantly. When he did spend time in the village, even he had heard of the problem the academy students were in their rebellious stages after so many of them lost one or both parents. He wasn't surprise to realize that the kids from then still had a need to let loose. As Kurenai moved closer to Asuma's chair, Kakashi got up. He downed his rather generous drink in one gulp. "I need to go find something." With that, he left the two sitting at the table watching the dancers as he made his way through the throngs of people in the direction he had seen Iruka disappear.

This was making less and less sense to him. How many sides did Iruka have? He had never heard Kurenai say someone was too weak to go on a mission with her. The woman took Genin on missions on a daily basis. The Iruka he saw the other night would be a benefit on many missions, but his comrade's approximation was that Iruka was useless. Normally they were spot on with their assessments. The difference between the Iruka that had been hanging on Anko, Izumo, and Kotetsu and dancing as if he wanted to sleep with them all was opposite the Iruka he thought he knew from his student's descriptions. Iruka's records said he completed 12 'A' rank missions, but now, even when they were short staffed, the man wasn't sent on missions.

Something was wrong here and he was going to find the man and find out what was actually going on.

_---------------- Notes -----------_

_(1) Thank you demonrubberducky for the shiny objects idea, your use of it had me laughing all afternoon._

_**PS for anyone interested about the reason they had to scale back, please see my user profile for a little oneshot explaining it.**_


	6. Chapter 6

_This chapter I gave everyone a glimpse back to how Iruka is seeing things. I don't think I took away much of the mystery._

_I also apologize for a three-paragraph description of drinking from a beer bottle. The devil is in the details after all._

_Thanks to everyone reviewing. For continuity purposes the Manga conversation if you can call it that between Kakashi and Iruka happened between Kakashi realizing he was spotted and the party, so it kind of explains some of the blushing but since it doesn't advance the plot and I know I'd over write it I'm just letting that have happened off screen so there isn't a 2 chapter filler thing just to wrap a stupid conversation about Naruto. The whole he broke in and does he know or what thing does help explain some blushing though evil giggles_

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Iruka POV 

Iruka got up and left the table, a smile on his lips. He had surprised the infamous copy-nin. The guy deserved it, who did he think he was spying on him? Jônin were always underestimating those of lower ranks -- especially underestimating him. The thing that made Iruka frustrated about being spied on was that he hadn't noticed right away. He still wasn't sure when it started.

He knew the man was watching his apartment, and he knew Kakashi had broken in. Iruka wasn't sure how much Kakashi found in his apartment, the things he wanted hidden were well hidden, but he wouldn't underestimate the copy-nin.

As he writhed his way through the crowd over towards the speaker where his stuff was, he tried to get his mind off Kakashi. With a quick check to the CD player and queuing up the rest of the music so he wouldn't have to check the thing again until Ibiki came to break up the party, he grabbed a bottle of water out of his bag before slamming it down. It was warm, but he didn't care, he was thirsty. He sat in the relative quiet behind the speakers where Izumo had cast a noise dampening jutsu, he could still hear the party, but it was dampened to being heard instead of felt.

He was breathing hard still; he'd been out on the dance floor almost non-stop now for four hours. It was getting hot in the building and he noticed he was completely soaked through. He checked his watch he had thrown in the bag, after midnight. Half the men out on the dance floor had lost their shirts already. This year was being warmer than usual and school break fell later than normal, normally the break was in May, this year it was late June, so the party was much warmer than average.

He was too sweaty for modesty about the shuriken scar his former friend had left on his back. He shrugged and pulled off the dripping wet T-shirt he had on and shoved it into his bag. He paused for a moment as he pulled a bottle of beer out of his bag. He sipped the bottle as he thought; letting the chocolaty amber ale coat his taste buds. Izumo and Kotetsu were probably in a back room somewhere so they wouldn't be around harassing him about his 'prissy expensive beer'.

Why wasn't he enjoying the party? Damn it Kakashi was making him not enjoy the party, making him think too much. Why was he so tense? This wasn't good. He couldn't stop his mind from racing back to that mission.

_It had been a simple mission; Kotetsu and Izumo were only there as backup. Ibiki didn't like sending him on solo missions, never saying it was because Iruka would need backup if things got out of hand, but it was obvious. He had found the mark in the club without any problem. It had been easy to get the man to follow him out of the club. The alley way hadn't been planned, Iruka's backup was waiting for him in a park another three blocks up, so he'd be without any backup if things went wrong. Things didn't go wrong, they went perfect, the information was recovered, and the mark was dead. What Iruka hadn't planned on was a brief sensation of familiar chakra as he killed the man. He wasn't sure where it came from, but it wasn't one of his teammates._

Iruka tried to relax and let the music penetrate his body. He was on edge, he was hiding it well, but he was on edge. He needed to relax, to let off some steam before it got to be too much. His mind just kept returning to that sense of a familiar chakra and how it felt the same as the one that had been watching his apartment. Why was Kakashi watching him? He'd never had a conversation with the man before Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura were assigned to him. What did he do to draw the attention of a jônin like him? Fooling most people to ignore him wasn't hard, but the copy nin was infamous for being able to see through deception.

He shouldn't be thinking, thinking meant work and he wasn't here to work, he was here to have fun. He either could drink until he couldn't think, or take care of what he was thinking about. With Anko off after someone and the other two off with each other, he was the only 'responsible' party left of the group. He muttered to himself, "I think I'm getting too old for this." He took another sip of his beer. He had former students almost old enough to be at these parties now. He had former students old enough that he was getting wedding invitations. How did he end up playing the role of responsible?

Iruka shook his head, why was he always the responsible party these days. OK a partially drunk, half dressed, and sweaty responsible party, but still. He couldn't drink until he forgot the silver-haired man, the only thing he could do was go and find Kakashi. He briefly wondered why he was letting his stalker get to him. This was nowhere near the first time he had been followed and watched by someone. The only thing different this time was the suspicion he had been seen on a mission. Even if he had been, the mission was no big deal, a simple assassination. He couldn't imagine a Jônin and former ANBU would even think twice at that. It had to be something else making him wonder about why he was being stalked.

He stood up and shook out his hair, it felt so good to have it down, but when he wore the forehead protector, up was so much more practical. He started to make his way through the crowd; letting the music guide him and his body just flow through the press of bodies. It felt good, his heartbeat matching the music as the bass throbbed through him. Half-opened eyes kept a look out for the sight of the copy-nin.

Kakashi wasn't still with Asuma when Iruka caught sight of the table they had all been at. Asuma and Kurenai seemed to be enjoying the alcohol and each other, so Iruka slipped back into the crowd. As he danced, the sweat covering his now bare chest, he stretched out his senses, feeling for the copy-nin's presence. It was draining on him to stretch like that, but no one noticed. Some days Iruka thought he would still be able to dance if he was unconscious. Other days Iruka wished he could just dance forever.

He started to head off towards where he knew the copy-nin was. As he got closer, he saw Kakashi turn to face him. Iruka kept pretending he wasn't looking for anything and just slowly made his way towards Kakashi, never stopping dancing; even sipping from his bottle of beer was in time to the music. He found the copy-nin next to him.

Kakashi wasn't near as good at dancing as Iruka, then again most people weren't. Iruka smiled at the copy-nin. The man looked good though. The black T-shirt he was wearing was getting damp from sweat and started to cling to the other man's chest. The jeans, not so hot, but somehow slouchy worked on the Jônin. The mask and the cloth over the eye -- who would expect anything else from him.

Iruka looked him over, if Kakashi wasn't a deadly former ANBU member, he might think he looked seduction worthy. As it was, he didn't miss the look Kakashi gave him as he noticed Iruka's state of undress. Iruka smiled at the other man and slid his way through the crowd to be in front of him. A detached part of his mind realized he was in mission mode – Phase 1 find Kakashi – success, initiating next phase. Unfortunately, for Iruka, Phase 2 normally was 'seduce target', not something Iruka had plans to do.

Part of his mind started to wonder, was Kakashi seduction worthy? He'd seen the copy-nin once fighting Gai in a hand-to-hand match. While Kakashi might be known for his ability with jutsu, the man had serious hand-to-hand skills. Flexibility, strength, and stamina. There had been one move where the jônin had almost bent over backwards to dodge a punch. Iruka briefly wondered why he was thinking like that. The man had lived in the same village as him for years and never noticed him before last week. If he obviously thought so little of a chuunin at the academy to never even speak to him, why bother putting in the thought of how skilled the man seemed.

Iruka didn't miss a beat of the music, his body never stopping its motion. "I was looking for you." He said, just loud enough for Kakashi to hear him. Iruka put the bottle of beer to his lips, letting himself taste the chocolaty ale for a moment, just long enough for the other man to glance at his lips, not long enough for it to be suspicious. Then he tilted his head back, to take a short sip from the bottle, purposefully bending his neck a bit more than needed.

Kakashi was nearly unreadable when Iruka looked at him again. Iruka smiled and moved closer so he was only and inch or two away from Kakashi. Before the man could react to how close the chuunin had moved, Iruka started speaking in a quieter tone, one that with the music could not be heard farther away then a foot at the most. "We need to talk."

Kakashi's POV 

He had been looking for nearly half an hour for the chuunin. Kakashi was about to use his Sharingan to find the man when he suddenly saw him. If at all possible, the man looked even wetter than before. Iruka had removed his shirt and his entire upper torso was shining from sweat. He had wet hair brushed back behind his ears, with a few stray strands plastered to the sides of his face.

It was hot in here, and Kakashi was sweating, but Kakashi wasn't moving as energetically as Iruka was. The man's body movements matched the tone of the music perfectly. When it was sexual, so was the chuunin. When it was intense, so was the chuunin, but the sexual never seemed to leave. Kakashi didn't think he could move like Iruka. For a second, he was tempted to analyze the chuunin's movements like he would watch some battle technique. Then it occurred to him that he would love to see if the man could fight with the same intensity.

When Iruka spotted him, he started to make his way to Kakashi. He may have been a few inches shorter, but the teacher probably outweighed Kakashi by a few pounds. Where Kakashi's build was lithe, Iruka was more muscular. A lifetime of being a ninja caused analyzing Iruka's movements second nature. If it were a fight, the confidence the younger man moved with would have been more than enough reason to not under estimate him, and perhaps would be something very interesting to see.

Iruka stopped two inches from Kakashi, the chuunin's body still writhing with the beat of the music as Kakashi found himself forgetting why he had been tracking the man down for a second. Iruka leaned into Kakashi, a husky voice saying, "I was looking for you."

Kakashi was unable to say anything before the chuunin took a sip of the beer he was holding. Normally a fellow leaf nin drinking a beer would not be distracting. However, everything Iruka was doing screamed sex. Even without the Sharingan activated, Kakashi saw every move as deliberate. He didn't know if Iruka meant to be doing what he was doing or if that was just how this Iruka drank beer. This Iruka who was at home on a dance floor instead of the one at home in a classroom. He would have never thought an academy teacher could make sipping a bottle more full of innuendo than any of his orange covered books.

The bottle came up to the brunette's lips, glass brushing against soft flesh for a second before making firm contact. Iruka's mouth opened and his lips softly tasted the glass top of the bottle. The analytical part of Kakashi's mind registered it was a bottle of some micro brew he had never heard of. How Iruka tilted his head back to actually drink the beer though, that shut off the analytical part of the Jônin's mind. Those soft lips were firmly on the glass opening of the bottle, and Kakashi could clearly see the younger man's tongue tracing along the inside of the opening.

Kakashi was taken aback by how the chuunin was exposing his throat; Ninja did not make motions like that. He was so taken aback by Iruka dropping his guard that he almost missed him moving forward to say something quietly in his ear. The younger man was so close to him that he could feel the breath on his ear.

In a voice that was low and soft, just barely able to be heard over the music, Iruka said, "We need to talk."

Kakashi could just nod as he followed the Chuunin's lead over towards the source of all the noise. Why they were headed to the loudest portion of the room in order to talk was a good question.

_------------------ Notes -------------------_

_Really this side of Iruka and the Iruka we all see in the Manga will come together, trust me. _

_Reviews are loved! I am stunned by the number of views this is getting. Please tell me what you think!_


	7. Chapter 7

_Disclaimer – The characters do not belong to me, although I share the same ability with plants as the creator of the Naruto universe, I share nothing else with him._

Warning – This story is rated for violence and sexual content. That content will be Slash as well as non-Slash. That means Male/Male as well as Male/Female, if this is disturbing to you, please read something else.

---------------- 7 ------------------------

Water Runs Red – Chapter 7

Iruka's movements never lost their rhythm to the music as he wound his way through the crowd. Kakashi followed, but not nearly as gracefully. Kakashi was left to watch the man's back as he was lead through the sweaty, writhing crowd. Kakashi tried to get his mind back into focus by studying the Chuunin's back. The large scar from the night Mizuki had almost killed the teacher was still tender looking, but Kakashi had expected it to be worse than it appeared; it seemed to have been healed since the hospital last week. The kunai wound on the shoulder was nearly invisible. If it hadn't been treated with the difficult to obtain ointment, it should have been much more apparent. A brief feeling of pleasure at being right about the ointment passed through the jônin.

Finally, they reached the area where the music equipment was set up and Kakashi noticed a paper screen by one of the largest speakers. Iruka disappeared behind it and Kakashi followed.

As soon as he got behind the screen, Kakashi felt himself pass through a jutsu and everything was much quieter. Iruka sat down with his back to the speaker, his bare chest rising and falling as if he had been running around the village, but then again Kakashi had seen how energetically the man danced. If Iruka fought with the same intensity that he danced, Kakashi would have loved to watch a match.

A quick glance around showed Kakashi the only other stuff behind here was four backpacks, one of which Iruka was reaching into and grabbing a bottle of water. The teacher handed it towards Kakashi, "Water?"

Kakashi nodded and took the bottle from him and opened it as Iruka grabbed another and started to gulp it down. "Kakashi-san, I'm glad you did make it. Anko said you were supposed to be here."

Kakashi nodded, "Kurenai wanted to come." He was busy looking around at how unnoticeable this silencing jutsu was, "This is nicely done. I didn't notice the spell in place until I was passing through it."

Iruka wiped a hand across his face, flinging some sweat onto the floor. "Izumo is good at this stuff."

Kakashi looked over at Iruka, "Oh, you didn't do it?" After the substitution the man pulled on him while he was watching the apartment, he had assumed this would be something Iruka would do.

Iruka smiled, a very nice smile, "No. Izumo is the talented one of the group with delicate stuff. Kotetsu was in charge of the bar. I handled music. Anko handled making sure everyone knows there will be the bar and music. Between the four of us we can throw a pretty good party."

Kakashi just nodded, it did explain how Iruka was able to so seamlessly transition from one beat to the next as songs changed though. "It is a large party."

Iruka nodded and closed the bottle of water he was drinking, "Why did you come?"

Kakashi was taken aback by the upfront question but he didn't let it show, "Kurenai wanted to come."

Iruka started to edge towards Kakashi, leaning on his hands and knees as he uttered "Bullshit." The younger man looked straight at him the politeness of earlier gone, "You've been following me and watching me, and I deserve to know why."

Kakashi nodded and looked at the tipsy, annoyed man; this may actually be a case where honesty was best. "The other night at the mission desk when I grabbed for your vest, you blocked me."

Iruka looked like he was waiting for more, when he didn't get any more elaboration his eyes narrowed, "And?"

Kakashi shrugged, "I didn't think you'd be able to move that fast."

Iruka blinked, "You expect me to believe you've been following me because I didn't let you grab my vest and threaten me?"

Kakashi nodded as he kept staring at the half-naked man just a few inches from him.

Iruka leaned closer to Kakashi, a drop of sweat from the brunette's hair dropping onto Kakashi's hand. Iruka looked up at Kakashi with half lidded eyes, the man's breath was hot on the jônin's pale skin. "Surely the famous copy-nin has better things to do than break into a boring school teacher's bedroom."

Kakashi could feel Iruka's hot breath as he spoke not even an inch from his masked face. He was just about to say something when suddenly lips were placed over his with only the thin material of his mask between them. Before Kakashi could react the lips were gone, "Are you ready to tell me why you are stalking me?" The chuunin was whispering to him, letting his breath fall across Kakashi's ear.

Kakashi forced himself to focus. He didn't see a threat from the Chuunin. Iruka kept inching forward, starting to force Kakashi to lean back. The chuunin's voice was barely audible, its low, husky tone almost blending with the dull thump of music. Innuendo wrapped around every syllable, "I can think of one reason a man like you would be watching me."

Kakashi's visible eye widened and he pushed the chuunin off of him, pinning him to the floor. "What do you mean by that?" Kakashi was holding the other man down by his shoulders. He looked down at the man pinned under him. Iruka wasn't resisting, he wasn't moving. He was just looking up with half-lidded eyes and a slight blush across his cheeks.

Iruka gently smiled, his tone more like one of someone teaching something to a small child as he parroted Kakashi's own phrase back to him, "Look beneath the underneath." Iruka remained pinned without any attempts at getting out from under the taller man.

Kakashi took a deep breath. The grip he had on the tan shoulders beneath him was slippery from the sweat. What did he mean, look beneath the underneath? Iruka reached up with one hand to grip Kakashi's shoulder, slowly urging him closer.

As Kakashi allowed himself to he urged lower towards the chuunin, he felt a leg brush the outside of his thigh as Iruka bent his knee. Kakashi was inches from those warm lips below him. Slowly sinking towards them as he felt the heat radiating from the chuunin. He closed his eyes when he could feel the heat from those lips almost ready to brush the mask over his own. Kakashi felt Iruka's fingertips tracing the skin right under his ear, causing a small shudder to run though him.

Kakashi lowered himself to be pinning the younger man with his body, his shirt against the wet naked chest below him. He traced a line along the tan skin with one pale finger, smiling underneath his mask at the shudder that rippled through the chuunin's body. "How did I not notice someone like you before the other day…?" Kakashi's voice trailed off. Had he been following Iruka for a sexual motive? His mind was racing trying to think of when he first found the other man desirable and when he decided to follow him.

Iruka took a deep breath and pushed against one of Kakashi's shoulders. It was as if someone had used a substitution jutsu and suddenly Iruka was no longer the warm, soft, radiating sex presence he had been. His voice was now cold and emotionless, "Get off me."

Kakashi rolled to the side. He was confused, one minute ago, the chuunin had been seducing him and now Iruka's eyes burned with a different fire – rage. "Hatake-san. I am not the play toy of any jônin. Please excuse me."

Iruka stood up and bowed in his very formal manner. "Please pardon me. I will not take up any more of your time." Then in an icy tone, he added, "You will also not take up any more of mine."

With that, Iruka turned around and walked off to the door leading to the back portion of the building. Kakashi watched as the chuunin walked off. He reached back to scratch the back of his head, evidently one of the answers he gave must have irked the other man. He stood up and made his way towards the door to follow the chuunin.

_ Iruka's POV _

He was mad. He was pissed actually. He really wanted to punch Kakashi in the face, but he wasn't stupid enough to start a fight with the infamous copy ninja. As for his other thought to bring a knee up real quick between the other's legs … well he didn't want to get in trouble either.

The nerve of that man following him around. He ran up the steps to get to the roof of the building, he needed to cool down. He burst out onto the roof and the night air hit him. He took a deep breath of the cold air and walked a few feet away from the entrance to the roof. He brought his hands together in front of him. Slowly he raised his arms until he was looking up through his arms at the moon in the night sky. He then whipped into the block, block, punch, punch, punch, kick of the Kanku Kata. The familiar movements helping him calm down and concentrate again.

_ A/N Kanku is a Kata of traditional Karate. As one's hands are brought together in the opening position, one gazes to the heavens through the hands to and reflect on the significance to man of the glory and infinity of the heavens. As long as heaven and earth remain in their celestial sojourn, all will be well. The sun will rise again tomorrow and with it comes new hope, regardless of how hard today seemed. _

He was about halfway through when he felt a familiar presence on the roof walking towards him. He stretched out his awareness for a second time that night until he located Morino Ibiki walking towards him. He went back to finishing the Kata and decided to ignore Ibiki for now. If it were important, then the man would interrupt him.

Finishing the final move, Iruka bowed deeply, and then stood as he took a deep breath. He turned towards the other man, finally opening his eyes, "How can I help you Morino-san."

The interrogator looked over at the half-naked chuunin. "I need to send you three on a new mission."

Iruka shook his head, "They aren't ready. They need a break. They are going to crack if you keep sending them out."

"It's dangerous. I can assign them as backup. This mission is too important and too dangerous to send only you."

"Ibiki-san, all our missions are dangerous. Those two need a break. Hell, those two might need to stop doing this. Maybe I need a break." His voice was hollow sounding as he admitted how his missions were wearing on him.

"Iruka, you know I wouldn't send you out again so soon if I didn't have to. This is just too important and you need to have back up."

"Let me see the mission." He took the folder, knowing the other man knew he would never actually turn down a mission. He paged through it, taking a deep breath. "I can do this alone. I don't want those two to be near anything like this."

"I am not sending you out there without backup. We have had this conversation countless times before. I refuse to send you alone."

"I said I can do it alone. I've had enough with being underestimated today." The last part was shouted towards the door which lead up from below.

_ Kakashi's POV and a bit earlier _

Kakashi slowly walked to the door. As soon as he left the area by the speaker, he was assaulted by how loud the music was. When he got to the door and got it closed behind him, once again the music was down to a dull roar. He started to search for Iruka. The rooms on the first floor were empty. The second floor revealed a few pairs of people trying to be alone in various rooms.

Iruka was nowhere to be seen, but he resisted the temptation to barge in and ask either Izumo or Kotetsu if they had any ideas. Anko from the sounds of things might kill Kakashi if he interrupted her evening.

He continued up the stairs to get to the roof, maybe the missing chuunin was up there. As he reached the door, he heard voices.

Iruka was saying, "I can do this alone."

Then he heard a surprising voice answer, "I am not sending you without backup. We have had this conversation countless times before. I refuse to send you alone." It was Ibiki. Kakashi didn't have much contact with the man, but he was well acquainted with the man since he was the head of the torture and interrogation division. Where could Ibiki of all people be sending Iruka?

Iruka's voice answered. "I said I can do it alone. I've had enough with being underestimated today." The chuunin practically yelled the last part, and Kakashi knew it was directed towards him.

He casually opened the door and stepped out onto the roof, tilting his head and scratching his neck, with a slouch he simply greeted both men with a "Yo."

Ibiki raised an eyebrow as Kakashi stepped onto the roof. "Kakashi." He glanced over at Iruka as if looking for an explanation.

"Morino-san, Have you met my stalker Hatake-san?" The bitterness of the chuunin's words could not be hidden in the properness of their form.

Ibiki nodded, giving the chuunin a questioning look, "Kakashi and I know each other."

Kakashi kept scratching the back of his neck with one hand as he walked over, "Sorry if I am interrupting, I was just looking for Iruka."

Iruka glared at Kakashi, "Perhaps, Hatake-san, you should inform Morino-san that you followed me last Friday night as well?"

Ibiki looked over at Iruka before glancing at Kakashi. "This is true?"

"Oh that." Kakashi did his best no big deal shrug, "I didn't realize the three of them were on a mission and they were acting oddly so I was just trying to figure out what was going on."

Ibiki frowned and turned to Iruka, "The presence you felt?"

Iruka nodded, "Yes. I was sure of it when I caught him watching my apartment."

"Watching your apartment?" Ibiki looked over at Kakashi as if expecting an answer.

Iruka smirked and rocking back and forth on his heals in a near perfect imitation of a tattling 8 year old, "Kakashi doesn't think I can do anything either, so when I stood up to him, his crazy jônin mind decided to stalk me."

Ibiki turned back to Iruka, looking decidedly unpleased, "Look. I said you are not going alone, and you are not going alone. Kakashi, this does not leave this roof. Iruka, I am not sending you without backup." His tone made it clear this was not open for discussion.

Iruka frowned and dropped his act. "Fine, just don't send them out yet. If you give them the rest of the week off, I'll do the mission however you want."

Ibiki nodded, "Anyway I want. I could assign an ANBU guard, or …"

Iruka just shrugged and turned around, bringing his hands back together in front of him and taking a deep breath. He muttered, "Whatever, I don't care." Slowly he brought his arms up and he took a deep breath, pausing when his arms were at the top to look through them at the moon hanging in the sky.

Before Iruka could start the blocking and punching routine of the kata, Ibiki smirked, "Perhaps I could assign your stalker to baby sit you."

Iruka turned around and looked at the two jônin. The glare on his face was worse than any he had ever shot at his classroom. He muttered, "Fine, whatever." As he turned back to restart the kata, hands in front of him once again. Barely a whisper, his griped, "Crazy jônin."

Kakashi watched as Iruka lifted up his arms again to look through them at the moon before launching into a very precise series of blocks and punches. He had been right, the chuunin's move's were exacting.

Ibiki walked over to the silver haired jônin. He touched the sleeve of the shirt Kakashi had on, "I need to assign you a mission."

Kakashi just nodded, turning to look at the other jônin, "Of course." The fact that his ANBU tattoo was just under the fabric of his shirt didn't need to be said.

Ibiki turned to head towards the edge of the roof, "Both of you in my office at Noon. Bring everything you'll need with you."

Without waiting for a response from either man, Ibiki jumped to the next roof top and was quickly gone.

_------------------------- Notes -----------------------_

_I am finally happy with how they ended up being sent someplace together. Sorry for the tease with them almost getting together but it was too early In the story and the tension will only help things move alone._

_It makes sense to me that Iruka would be good with kata, he is after all a teacher and has to do all that training for his students. He needs to be good so his students don't beat him. He is not uber-Iruka though, it just hasn't become too apparent yet where his real weaknesses are._

_Thanks everyone who is reading and reviewing, I –love- the reviews and am trying now to respond to all the news ones. _


	8. Chapter 8

_Please see disclaimer and warnings on chapter 1_

----------------- 8 --------------------

Water Runs Red – Chapter 8

Kakashi watched Iruka move through the motions of the Kata, the Chuunin's eyes were closed and it was obvious he was concentrating completely on what he was doing. The teacher's form was near perfect, the type of perfection that could only be acquired from years of practice. Then Kakashi noticed something else, Iruka's movements were exactly in time to the music vibrating up through the floor below them.

Kakashi stood there as the Kata ended and Iruka bowed to his imaginary enemy.

Iruka turned to Kakashi, taking deep breaths as he looked over at the other man. "So you are going to be my babysitter." He proceeded to stretch out his muscles slowly. His breathing was still fast and even the cool breeze on the roof hadn't dried off all the sweat.

"Looks like it." Kakashi sighed and scratched at the back of his neck, "What kind of mission and how long?" When Iruka didn't stop doing his stretching to respond, Kakashi decided this could take a while and he reached into his pocket to pull out … nothing. Kurenai had insisted he leave the book with his work uniform. How his precious Icha Icha qualified as 'work' was a mystery, but Kurenai had been insistent and Asuma didn't want her mad so Kakashi had no choice but to leave the precious orange volume at his apartment.

Iruka frowned as he stood up, "We shouldn't discuss this here." He shook his head, "still another hour until the party is over." He took a deep breath and looked up at the moon, "Kami-sama, what did I ever do to you?" With an odd smile on his face, he turned to Kakashi, "Your place or mine?"

Kakashi actually was stunned for a moment, before breaking into a small bit of laughter, "Yours, mine is covered in dog hair."

Iruka smirked, "Sounds good, I'll go kick Izumo out of bed so I can leave him in charge. Want to meet me there in 30?"

Kakashi nodded and made his way back down the stairs to go and find Asuma and Kurenai. After making sure they would check up on his team occasionally while he was gone, Kakashi left to wander the town and think until he needed to be at Iruka's.

Tonight had been odd, extremely odd. He had found out a lot more about Iruka than he had known before tonight, but there was if possible more that needed to be answered. He was walking along the empty streets thinking when he noticed he smelled like the chuunin, or at least smelt like Iruka's sweat. He wasn't far from his own apartment so he ducked in to change real quick. Less than five minutes later he was off across the rooftops towards Iruka's apartment, this time less stealthy than the last time he had been headed there.

He was actually a minute or two early. He saw that the window of the apartment was open, and taking an open window as an invitation, he landed gracefully on the wooden floor of Iruka's living room.

The sound of the shower running could be heard, but the rest of the room seemed exactly as last time he had been there. Kakashi sat down and flipped through one of the weaponry magazines while waiting for the Chuunin.

Just as Kakashi opened the magazine, the water stopped and he heard Iruka call out from the bathroom, "You're early, Kakashi-san. I'll be there in a minute."

True to his word, about three pages later, the bathroom door opened and Iruka walked into the living room. For a moment, Kakashi wondered when the last time he had seen the chuunin dry was.

Iruka was wearing a pair of black sweatpants and a forest green T-shirt. He was still drying his hair with a towel as he approached the jonin, "I wasn't expecting you to be early." Iruka threw the towel into a hamper and walked towards the kitchen, "Can I get you anything?"

Kakashi blinked as he looked at Iruka's hair. "You're blond?" He stood up and walked towards the other man.

"Our mark prefers lighter hair. Can I get you anything? Tea?"

Kakashi nodded, "Tea sounds good." He kept watching Iruka as the man walked into the open kitchenette and put some water into a kettle. "So we're doing a hit?"

Iruka shook his head, "No. We have to intercept a messenger." He opened up the microwave and pressed something, which caused the bottom of the appliance to pop open. Iruka pulled a file from the secrete area of the microwave before turning to Kakashi and throwing it onto the table.

As Kakashi sat down and flipped through the file, Iruka grabbed two cups out of the cupboard and placed them on the table. Kakashi opened the folder and was immediately flooded in pictures. The mark was named Gatu and was in his thirties. He was also a jonin missing-nin. Kakashi looked over at Iruka; the man had been insisting he could handle _this _alone? Kakashi flipped through the rest of the papers, mostly information on a bar it was assumed that Gatu would visit. The last of the paperwork detailed several apparent murders the missing-nin had done.

By the time Kakashi had scanned the folder, Iruka was pouring the tea. Kakashi looked up at the younger man, "You thought Ibiki would let you go on this alone?"

Iruka glanced towards the ceiling, "Believe it or not, I am capable of this. Your position in this mission is strictly backup. If nothing goes wrong, you'll be sitting in a hotel the whole time seeing what's on TV."

Kakashi nodded, "You've done a lot of missions for Ibiki?"

"You could say that." Iruka sat down and picked up his cup of tea. "This is a simple mission. We'll travel to the town; if we go fast, we can be there by dawn. We'll get a hotel room close to the club, and make sure the equipment works. I'll find the mark, and you'll listen in and make sure I don't need backup. Once I have the information, we'll leave town and be back here as soon as possible."

Kakashi looked at the other man. "How do you plan on getting a scroll from a jonin missing-nin?" He tried not to sound like he was questioning the chuunin's abilities, but in fact he was.

"It's not a scroll." Iruka sighed, "It's most likely written directly on his body and will need to have chakra pumped through the skin to make it visible."

Kakashi's visible eyebrow shot up, "And you think he'll just let you read it?"

Iruka took a deep sip of his tea, "No, I plan on getting him drunk and seducing him before slipping him something to knock him unconscious. I don't plan on him letting me do anything. The point is for him not to know anyone has read the message."

The chuunin spoke of the seduction plot with the same lack of emotion as Kakashi would discuss an assassination mission. When Iruka pulled out a map of the town and started to go over the details of where they would stay, where he planned to drug the other man, and best escape routes, Kakashi began to have fewer doubts about the mission. The chuunin was approaching this with calm professionalism.

Finally, Iruka sighed, "Of course no hints of this mission can ever be mentioned to any of my students, past or present."

Kakashi nodded, it didn't really need to be said. "I have some questions though."

Iruka looked over at him, suspiciously.

"I deserve to know the abilities of any shinobi I am assigned to work with." He phrased it as worked with in order to avoid the question of who was in charge. No sense bringing up the difference in their ranks before the meeting with Ibiki.

Iruka nodded, "Beyond that I have the skill set to complete this mission without your assistance, what do you wish to know."

Kakashi frowned for a moment behind his mask, deciding to phrase his questions carefully. "How did an academy teacher end up working covertly for Ibiki?"

Iruka smiled, but not his normal happy smile. "Your assumption is wrong. The proper question is how did someone working covertly for Ibiki end up being an academy teacher."

Kakashi tilted his head; the chuunin was not going to make this easy on him. "You've been working for Ibiki longer than the academy?"

Iruka nodded, "Since I was fifteen."

Kakashi thought that over for a few moments, that meant that basically the entire time the man had been a chuunin he had been working for Ibiki, "Then why the job at the academy?"

Iruka glanced over towards one wall, avoiding looking Kakashi in the eye. "Because of the fox."

"Naruto?"

Iruka shook his head, "No. Because of the fox attack. The year before me to graduate was the first year where there were orphans from the fox attack. My year … well, we didn't handle things as well as the year before us. The year after mine was exceptionally difficult."

He took a deep breath before continuing. "Do you remember old man Yorihito?"

Kakashi nodded, "He ran the Torture and Interrogation Unit before Ibiki took over."

Iruka nodded, "Well he couldn't figure out why the fox attack was affecting the academy classes more than the war before. Ibiki's first big assignment for T&I was to figure it out. Ibiki's first move was to find some of us that were most affected by the fox." He twirled the tea in his cup as he watched it move around the cup, "I was stunned no one knew. I mean, it was an attack by a demon, a force of nature. There was nothing that could be done to prepare. Shinobi were plowed down in the same way buildings were. In a war there were enemies, and an understanding of what was going on. But the fox attack. In such a short time so much was changed, without warning."

Iruka sipped the last of his tea. "I ended up working for Ibiki after that. Trained in psychology and methods normally associated with kunoichi. Turns out I inherited the skills from my maternal line"

Iruka shook his head, "I'm babbling, it's late. I shouldn't drag on. I was assigned to teach at the academy to keep an eye on the students most affected by the fox attack. I was trained to help them deal with it, and since I had been affected, they trusted me. I never wanted to be a teacher."

Kakashi nodded, things were starting to make sense. "Kurenai said your chakra levels were low."

Iruka nodded. "They are. In a battle I have very few Jutsu I can use, even controlling the chakra exactly to use the bare minimum, I can not last for a protracted fight."

"Physical combat?"

"I think after the roof, you already know the answer to that."

"Medical skills?"

"Poisons and drugs mostly. Aside from the classroom cuts and scraps, I have little experience with battle wounds and I don't have the chakra levels for more than healing minor injuries.

Kakashi nodded, "Thank you for being frank about this."

Iruka nodded, "It's not your fault that you were the one dragged into this." He shook his head, "I am sorry for baiting you. I should have realized you were just following me because I was acting unusual. Of course you notice things that are strange, it's how you survive."

Kakashi nodded, "I was right, though. It did turn out that you were very interesting."

Iruka smiled, "Yeah. I had better get some rest before the drinking catches up with me. Ibiki's office at noon."

Kakashi nodded and stood up, leaving via the window.

_ Iruka's POV _

Iruka closed the window after the jonin left. He destroyed the file using a simple chakra tag, and then packed for the mission. Finally, he was on his futon trying to fall asleep. Doubts crept into his mind. Could he do this with Kakashi there? Kakashi had only seen a mission where things went better than hoped. He knew he was making this mission seem easier than it really was. The man they were going after enjoyed inflicting pain on his 'lovers'. Iruka was not going to get out of this uninjured, not and be able to make it believable.

What would Kakashi think after this? How could he look at the other man across the mission desk? Maybe it was time for him to retire. The last class affected by the fox attack was graduating. This class wasn't as bad as Naruto's year even. Only two of his students this year had lost a parent in the attack, both losing fathers before they were born. His mission at the academy was almost done.

Iruka rolled over onto his side. Thinking of retiring was too stressful. If he retired, someone else would have to take his place, and he couldn't think of any of his students doing this. He didn't want to think that he wasn't much older than Naruto when he had started this. Finally, fitful sleep took him, ending his self-imposed guilt trip over the way he was best able to serve his village

_------------------- Notes ------------_

_Sorry for the downer chapter, but this means next chapter is the start of the MISSION! That means Iruka in seduction mode and Kakashi being forced to watch. Oh! How cruel am I!_

_Yes, this is the fourth chapter in a row where Iruka's wetness has been mentioned. For someone playing down the whole Umi (sea) thing, that boy is sure wet. He hasn't worn a single stitch of blue that isn't part of his uniform though._

_I am also debating doing a NON edited to FF standards version of this and plopping it onto maybe livejornel or something, so tell me if this would be desired? Some of this might need to be glossed over to meet Fan fiction rules_

_Original Characters – _

_Yorihito – will probably only be mentioned this one time and is simply a name for whoever ran T & I before Ibiki. I don't think cannon sources ever mention who Ibiki took over from. If anyone knows of a real name for whoever used to run T & I, I would love to know._


	9. Chapter 9

_Standard diclaimer - I do not own Naruto or else the filler episodes of the anime would be over!_

----------------------- 9 --------------------------

Water Runs Red – Chapter 9

Kakashi walked through the door of the Torture and Interrogation unit slightly before noon with his mission pack on his back. He may be late to most things, but missions were different. He knew many of the people as he walked through the halls towards Ibiki's office. Many people were ones he had worked with before, mostly jonin, many of them also ANBU.

Kakashi knocked on Ibiki's office door and opened it walked inside when he heard "Come in" in answer to his knock. Kakashi was not expecting what he saw when he entered the office, shutting the door behind him.

Genma, without his near infamous senbon in his mouth, was sitting on Ibiki's desk while Iruka sat in a chair right in front of him. Genma had both his feet on Iruka's chair, one on the outside and one between Iruka's legs and was leaning forward, very close to the chuunin. Kakashi walked up to the men and narrowed his visible eye at what Genma was doing. He had his senbon in right hand and Iruka's lower lip in the other and was evidently getting ready to push it through the flesh of the other man's lower lip.

"Kakashi, I'll be done here in a second." With that, Genma stabbed Iruka with the Senbon, right below the lower lip. Iruka didn't even flinch, he just handed Genma a small piece of silver jewelry.

"Ibiki made sure this thing was safe right?" Genma looked at the small silver piece of metal for a few seconds, finally undoing a screw fixture on one end and slipping it through the newly created hole when Iruka managed an "Mmmhmmm" as an affirmation.

Genma fidgeted with the small piercing before having it how he wanted it. Then Iruka performed a few seals before bringing two glowing green fingers up to his lip and healing the tissue damage.

Then Genma quickly repeated the procedure for the exact same thing on the upper lip. The piercings were very small, almost unnoticeable except when the bright silver metal reflected off the lights in the room.

Iruka checked out the inner portions of the piercings with his tongue before nodding, "Nice job."

Genma smirked as he replaced his senbon into his mouth, "This thing isn't just for decoration, you know." He picked up the final piece of jewelry in a small box on the desk, "Should we take care of the last one?"

"No need." Iruka pulled up the tan colored shirt he was wearing and started to unscrew the end off of his currant navel piercing. "Never undid this one the last time you had to do it."

Genma shook his head as he handed over the piece of jewelry, "Oh, I see. Not worried about your students seeing that one."

Kakashi was watching the two; it was obvious that Genma had worked with Iruka before. They all knew Genma did work for Ibiki; Kakashi had even been on missions with Genma more than a few times and knew the man had some serious abilities. Then again, few ninja made the man's age and rank without having some serious abilities. Genma wasn't treating Iruka like a Low-level Chuunin. He was treating him as an equal, or even a friend. It was very curious. Kakashi wanted to test this observation. "I thought half the Ninja in Konoha knew you had that, Iruka?"

Genma quirked an eyebrow at Kakashi and then turned back to Iruka as the younger man laughed, "It's not my fault it was hot. Besides, none of my students were at that party."

"Kakashi was at the party?"

"Kurenai dragged me and Asuma."

Genma shook his head and turned to Kakashi, "Sure sure, she made you go to the best party of the year in the village while I was stuck on guard duty. Poor you. I have to get back to the third's office, later guys."

Iruka finished adjusting the piercing in his navel and looked over at Kakashi. "It's a radio transmitter." Iruka smoothed down his tan shirt and then pulled a grass colored vest on over it. It was lighter than the standard vest for leaf, in color and in design. Only two scroll pockets on either side and a much lighter material.

"Grass nin outfit?" Kakashi wasn't looking for confirmation as to what the chuunin was wearing, rather looking for an answer to why.

"You'll be officially escorting me back to my country; cover story is I dropped off a message for the Hokage about the upcoming Chuunin exam." Iruka positioned some bandages over his nose, similar to what Kotetsu normally sported then pulled out a grass bandana and tying it in a manner similar to Izumo.

Iruka definitely didn't look like himself. With the blond hair pressed down next to his face and the grass nin outfit. He was still tan, but his distinguishing scar was covered. "I doubt anyone will recognize me like this."

Kakashi nodded, "I don't think I'd recognize, except your chakra of course."

Iruka smirked and closed his eyes for a second. Suddenly his chakra appeared much more organized and cooler. "You were saying?"

"Impressive. How long can you hold it?" Kakashi hadn't forgotten about Iruka mentioning having a low chakra level.

"A few hours." With that, he let it drop, "It's easier to hold if I am not holding an illusion in place, besides holding an illusion doesn't make sense when trying to hide chakra. Anyone who would notice the chakra could notice the illusion."

The door opened suddenly and Ibiki walked in. Iruka immediately stood. The interrogation expert just waved a hand, "Sit, Sit. Both of you." As both of them took a seat, Ibiki sat down in the padded chair behind his desk. "Kakashi, Iruka briefed you?"

Kakashi just nodded.

"Good, I want you to leave as soon as possible. This information could be critical. Kakashi, you stay out of sight, rumors of the copy-nin in the area will made the target more jumpy." Ibiki passed a small box over to Kakashi. "This is the receiver for the transmitter Iruka has. It will only work for approximately twelve hours from when Iruka activates it." Ibiki then did something Kakashi had rarely seen -- he looked concerned. "Iruka, you're sure?"

Iruka nodded, "I'll get the information."

Ibiki nodded, "Get going you two."

Iruka stood and gathered up his pack as Kakashi placed the box inside his own. Iruka adjusted the bandana with the etched grass on it and gestured at the door, his voice slightly different as he said, "After you, leaf nin."

Kakashi nodded and made his way out the door, his estimation of Iruka's covert abilities rising as he felt the other nin's chakra signature change to be very un-Iruka. Leaving the village was easy, everyone just seemed to assume Kakashi was escorting a grass nin when they saw him being followed by an unfamiliar man with another village's forehead protector.

Once they were out of sight of the village, they picked up the pace to travel much faster, and towards sand instead of towards grass. Kakashi knew the other man could travel fast, but he had assumed he wouldn't be able to keep it up all day. He was proven wrong though as sunset approached and they were still traveling at something resembling an ANBU speed. Kakashi could have gone faster, but not significantly faster.

They paused for a quick meal before rushing off again. They'd have to keep up the hard pace to reach their destination before the sun rose. The moon soon rose high in the sky and the chuunin kept up the pace. Kakashi was seriously starting to re-evaluate what the man had told him of his abilities. This type of a pace for this amount of distance took some serious amounts of endurance. The other man's chakra control as they leapt from branch to branch never faltered. When they switched to running through the tall grass once the trees thinned to grassland, the other man traveled as silently as Kakashi.

In essence, Iruka was traveling better than most new recruits to the ranks of ANBU, something that was not expected from a chuunin. About an hour before dawn, they reached the outskirts of the village and Iruka started to pull clothes from his pack when they stopped. His grass nin uniform was quickly replaced with a loose white linen shirt and loose khaki pants.

Iruka took a deep breath, "OK, follow me. I'll get a room at the hotel and open the window. Sneak in. Don't be seen."

Without waiting for Kakashi's response, Iruka started walking down the street. Momentarily surprised at how the chuunin was taking charge, Kakashi followed in the shadows. When Iruka walked into the hotel, Kakashi waited to see a window open. About fifteen minutes later, just about the point Kakashi was starting to wonder if something was wrong, he saw the chuunin open a window on the second story. The sky was already starting to lighten as Kakashi made his way to the building and jumped through the window with a calm "Yo."

Iruka just shook his head, "Hide in the bathroom, I should have breakfast here in a few minutes."

Kakashi was about ready to argue when he heard a rapping on the door. Iruka glared at Kakashi until the man beat a hasty retreat to hide in the bathroom. Kakashi heard someone enter the room and a woman's voice, "You must be so tired from your trip. I'll make sure no one disturbs you."

"I don't want to be a bother; you've been more than kind. This is such a lovely room and breakfast looks amazing."

"Oh, this is nothing. Let me pour you some tea." He heard the sound of a slightly muffled Iruka yawn, "Oh I am sorry, sir. I should let you get some rest. Just put the tray outside the door when you're done. If you need anything I'll be downstairs."

For a moment, Kakashi thought the woman's tone on 'anything' sounded a bit flirty. However, he heard her stand up and leave, closing the door behind her. A minute or so later, Iruka indicated he could come out.

When Kakashi stepped back into the main room, he saw a small feast. Grilled vegetables and fish with rice and a small pot of tea, with only one glass of course. It was a very large meal for one person. Iruka gestured to the other side of the tray, "Help yourself. I wasn't sure what you liked, but I figured anything she made would taste better than field rations."

Kakashi nodded, pouring some of the tea into a metal cup from his bag. "I didn't know this place had room service."

Iruka grinned, "It doesn't."

They drifted into silence as they ate, Kakashi left to ponder how the man across from him could have gotten them breakfast so easily. Suddenly Iruka set down his chopsticks, "I'm grabbing a shower."

Kakashi kept eating the surprisingly good food as the chuunin stood up and made his way over to the bathroom. A minute later the sound of water running drifted through the room. He smirked to himself; at least being on a mission with Iruka wasn't bad so far. Decent place to stay and a decent meal was more than he got on most missions.

Iruka walked out of the bathroom a very short time later and threw his clothes towards the corner where he had shoved his bag. He made his still damp way over to the hotel bed and crawled in under the covers in his boxers before muttering, "I don't care where you sleep, but I'm sleeping right here."

Suddenly the chuunin had the blanket up over his head and Kakashi was left to wonder should he grab the other half of the bed, or see if the chair was comfortable. Deciding it was a choice best left for later, he went and cleaned up in the bathroom. By the time the warm water relaxed all his sore muscles, he had decided that Iruka may not care where, but Kakashi did and dang it, the other half of the bed was his.

He made sure he made enough noise as he made his way over to the bed so he wouldn't surprise the other man. He slipped in under the covers and decided to try and sleep. It was always hard for a ninja to sleep around others, especially hard when they didn't know the other person well. It was the reason teams were normally people who knew each other well, at least whenever that was possible. For short missions, it didn't matter as much. Kakashi could go a week or more without actually sleeping, instead just taking a light nap which he could instantly wake from. Kakashi fell into that sort of sleep, keenly aware of everything around him, but still resting on the shallowest outskirts of sleep.

He wasn't surprised the other man fell into a much heavier sleep. Still aware of what was going on, but not the level of paranoia that years in ANBU and a war gets you. Several hours later her heard the other man wake up.

Kakashi decided this was a good opportunity to get some questions answered, "Can I ask you something?"

Iruka half laughed, "The answer is no, I don't still respect you."

Kakashi was momentarily taken aback by not being the one making the perverted comment, "I was going to ask why you haven't put in to be a jonin."

Iruka got out of bed and started pulling on his khaki's and white shirt, "I don't have the necessary firepower to do that."

"A lot of people make jonin based on being competent at fighting but being extremely good undercover. I've seen people with less skill pass."

"And how soon afterward were their names written on that stone?" Iruka started to mess with his hair in front of the mirror, something involving a tube of hair gel.

"A Lot of Kunoichi make it to jonin specifically to do undercover work for ANBU."

"This is fine if you're a Kunoichi, however incase you didn't realize, I am not."

"Ibiki hasn't tried to get you to move up?"

"Ibiki would dance on his desk in a skirt if he thought it would get me to put in for it." Iruka shook his head, "That is a disturbing mental picture." He shrugged, "Look I don't want to. I'm going to grab some takeout for lunch, any preference?"

"Anything besides ramen."

Iruka nodded and left leaving Kakashi to think over what he had said.

Lunch passed without much of note, Iruka didn't seem in the mood to talk before going right back to bed until the sun had set, then he went out for late dinner, bringing back food again, but this time giving it all to Kakashi who was setting up the receiver from the box.

The older man looked at him, "Not hungry?"

Iruka pulled out paper and pen and set them in a corner of the room along with several vials, "No sense eating this close to going out." Without another comment. Iruka grabbed his backpack and walked into the bathroom, closing the door.

Kakashi ignored the other man's mood and continued setting up the receiver. It was compact but had very little range; he should be able to hear everything that happened on Iruka's mission. Hopefully, he'd be able to cover the three blocks between here and the club quickly enough if anything went wrong.

A few minutes later, Iruka emerged from the bathroom. His hair looked an absolute mess, in a stylish way. He also had a mesh tank thrown on over his torso. The surprising part was his pants. He was evidently trying to prove Izumo didn't have the tightest leather pants as he walked over to the bed. The legs of the pants were so tight, that almost every muscle of the man's legs was visible. The zipper was not zipped though for an obvious reason of the pants were –that- tight.

Iruka threw himself half onto the bed, back down as he maneuvered to get his pants zipped up. Kakashi was very glad for the mask that was hiding his amusement. Finally, the battle between Iruka vs. the too tight pants ended with the chuunin beating the leather. As he stood up, Kakashi realized that he had see way too much of the chuunin, and obviously there was not any underwear under those pants.

Without commenting on the pants situation, Iruka walked over to a full-length mirror and started to adjust his clothes and his hair. Finally, he muttered, "I realize how much blackmail material you have on me."

Kakashi turned and looked at him, "This isn't the first mission where I've been backup incase a seduction goes wrong."

Iruka took a deep sigh, "I'm sorry, I just … look, this could get a bit…" He paused looking for the right word, "This could get a bit violent. OK, I'll be fine, but I don't want you thinking I need help when I don't need help."

"Of course. Some sort of code then?"

Iruka nodded, "That's my normal method. Unless you hear me say 'safe', don't think I need your help."

Kakashi nodded, "Of course."

Iruka turned and looked at him with a very serious look, "I mean it. I don't care if you think he is killing me. Unless I say 'safe' do NOT interfere. This man had some really fucked up tastes, and I do not need to be worrying about you not trusting me enough to let me do my mission."

Kakashi's eyes narrowed, "What do you mean fucked up?"

"I mean he will probably torture me, beat me, and do god knows what else. BUT, I have to get him to a position where I can drug him and read the message on him. To do that, I have to play along."

Kakashi refrained from insisting there had to be another way; he had been on too many missions where there just really wasn't another way.

"Unless you say 'safe' I will stay right here and only keep tabs on you with the receiver."

Iruka gave him a brave looking smile, that somehow just seemed hollow. "So how do I look?"

With the blond hair and the piercings, Iruka looked very un-Iruka like. The mesh shirt showed off his chest perfectly though. The Black leather pants hugged his lower body like a second skin, and Kakashi had to agree he looked good. "Hot."

Kakashi was momentarily surprised that he had said 'hot', but it was true, and obviously, the look Iruka was going for. The younger man smiled and left the room leaving Kakashi to sit at the chair pulled up in front of the receiver as he listed to Iruka make his way out of the hotel.

_------------ Notes ----------------_

_Obviously this is the last chapter of set up for the 'mission'. I think things are sufficiently uncomfortable between Kakashi and Iruka._

_Thanks for reading and reviewing all of you that have, the mail in my inbox is a happy part of my day._


	10. Chapter 10

_Thanks to everyone who stuck with me through that chapter of set up. _

_Please tell me what you think of the route things are taking._

_Thank you_

_Disclaimer: They are not mine_

_Warning: Although I tried to make this as not graphic as possible. There is Male/Male sex. Also a distinct bit of violence and being generally not nice to Iruka._

--------------------------- 10 --------------------

Water Runs Red – Chapter 10

Kakashi was left with nothing to do except listen to the sound feed from the transmitter Iruka was wearing.

The first hour passed with nothing exciting happening. Iruka reached the club, the music was loud and Iruka ordered a drink. Sometime in the second hour, Iruka had a short conversation with some girl about textiles. During the third hour and another two drinks, he heard Iruka start talking to a guy.

Kakashi was about ready to ignore it as Iruka just talking to yet another person when Iruka giggled, "My name is Yukio".

There was an answering chuckle, "Gatu. Want to join me for drinks?"

Iruka's carefree answer then slipped into a steady stream of chatter about nothing. Iruka went through his whole fake background, how he was the son of a textile merchant and was in town doing some business for his father. The story was even complete with remarks about how his father, for reasons Iruka of course couldn't understand, thought he would be too busy having fun than to remember about the business he was sent for."

This of course turned the conversation to what kind of fun he liked. To which Iruka simply replied, "I don't know. Maybe you?"

Kakashi glared at the receiver. That could not possibly work. Iruka was blowing this on a lame pick up line.

The deep chuckle that came through the speaker stopped Kakashi's internal rant at Iruka's seduction skills as Gatu answered. "Well, Yukio-kun, I might just have a few hours to have fun with you tonight. You look adorable when you blush."

Suddenly Gatu was talking about leaving the club. Kakashi's eyes widened. Iruka hadn't discussed leaving the club when they were talking about the mission. Iruka's voice didn't betray even a hint of trepidation. In his softest voice he asked, "Is it far? It's really cold out in this shirt."

Suddenly he heard the sound of fabric rustling, "No, just a few blocks, I promise I'll keep you nice and warm."

The two chatted a little, mostly about how beautiful Iruka's eyes were and how tall and strong Gatu was. If Kakashi wasn't mistaken it was very similar to conversation he'd had in the past with various dates. Except he was pretty sure he'd included putting his jônin vest over the other party.

Soon Iruka was commenting on how nice the room was, and how beautiful the view of the park was. Kakashi glanced at the map of the town they had and could easily pinpoint which hotel from the few clues Iruka dropped while admiring the view

The next noise to come over the transmitter was Iruka gasping, "What are you doing." Then a loud thump.

Gatu no longer seemed to be humoring his 'date' and growled out, "Get to work"

Iruka whimpered and sniffed before kissing and slurping sounds could be heard over the transmitter. The noise of something like a hand hitting flesh occasionally transmitted over the radio as Gatu grunted and groaned in pleasure.

Suddenly that ended as Gatu's voice again could be heard, "On your feet bitch."

Iruka whimpered and sounded in pain, as there was suddenly a loud thump of something hitting the floor.

Iruka was begging, "Please don't hit me. Please don't hurt me; I'll do whatever you want."

Kakashi had to take a deep breath; he really hoped the chuunin was acting, because he sounded so damn believable. Kakashi wanted to go and play back up right now. There was a lot of rustling heard over the speaker before Gatu again spoke, being heard over Iruka's near constant whimpers. "There that will keep you from running off, little one." Suddenly there was a loud slap, "Stop crying damn it or I'll give you something to cry about."

Iruka blurted out apologies as fast as possible, but was silenced back to whimpering by the sound of punches. Iruka's voice became more muffled and Kakashi had to strain to hear anything. He heard the sound of a weapon being drawn, probably a dagger -- the draw didn't sound like a sword.

All he could hear over the radio was muffled cried and pained noises. He hadn't realized how much being a ninja had insulated him from hearing those types of noises. They were the type a civilian made, not a ninja.

Gatu laughed, and it was a bone-chilling laugh. Kakashi could peg it as the laugh of a cold-blooded killer, "There now, red really is your color Yukio-chan. Silly boy wandering this town unarmed, your father should have taught you better."

Suddenly there was a loud muffled scream from Iruka and a grunt from Gatu and the talking ended. The muffled screams and whimpers didn't end and the sound of Gatu panting didn't end for what seemed like a long time, but was really only fifteen minutes.

Kakashi desperately wanted to go and save Iruka from what was going on. He hated feeling helpless and was reminded of why he never took missions like this. He couldn't stand not being in a place to help his teammates. Damn it, that bastard should not have his hands and god knows what else on Iruka.

The logical part of Kakashi's mind devoted a small portion of his brain to wondering if he was feeling jealous or possessive over the Chuunin. The rest of Kakashi's mind was busy rebelling against the fact that his teammate was being … he didn't even want to think about what was happening to Iruka … and he was in a hotel room doing nothing but listening for a word that the man probably couldn't say because he was most likely gagged.

The plan did not include what to do if Iruka was gagged. Kakashi was kicking himself for not having thought of this possibility or for pushing Iruka for details about what this man would probably do to him. He didn't know if Iruka had counted on this or if this was a surprise.

Then he heard a loud low moan of "Yes." Come over the speaker. Then the suddenly the tone of Iruka's whimper's changed and sounded less muffled. The next noise could only be metal hitting teeth. He assumed one of the piercings on Iruka's lips hitting either his own teeth or those of Gatu.

Then he heard the indescribable sound of Iruka kissing someone. He remembered exactly what those little whimpery moans sounded like, and the sound of Iruka's lips. The part of Kakashi's mind that had been puzzling over the possessive/jealous question decided that yes, Kakashi was definitely feeling possessive and jealous.

Gatu huskily whispered, "You are such a little slut, still wanting more after that." He laughed quietly, "Such a little slut, I'll keep you tied up here and just rest my eyes."

Iruka's voice almost purred, "If you untie me, I'll be very good … maybe clean up that mess." Kakashi heard the sound of Iruka licking loudly, his tongue running along someone's skin.

"I'm not stupid, you are staying right there." Gatu's voice was sounding exhausted. Iruka was murmuring a steady stream of what exactly he could do to the other man. The detail of some of the descriptions enough to make Kakashi sure he could never think 'innocent' and 'Iruka' in the same sentence ever again, unless 'not by a long shot' was also in that same sentence.

After a minute or two of silence, he heard Iruka's voice, "Gatu? Gatu? Are you asleep?"

Kakashi frowned; Iruka must have gotten Gatu drugged, but how?

More silence besides the sound of some movement. Then complete silence. Kakashi was getting worried after hearing nothing over the speaker for a good five minutes, when he suddenly heard movement again. Then the sound of a window opening. A thump followed by the noise of cicadas and the sound of walking. "Kakashi, open the window, I can't come in through the front door like this." Iruka's voice sounded strained, but in control. Kakashi quickly went over to the window and opened it. A few minutes later Iruka climbed in through the window.

The chuunin walked straight towards the bathroom, not fully able to hide the painful limp. His shirt was gone. His pants were ripped. Most surprisingly, he was covered in blood. Iruka simply stripped out of his ruined pants and threw a towel around his waist and walked over to the vials and paper he had set out before.

He downed one of the vials and started writing, not even saying anything to Kakashi. As fast as he could, Iruka wrote down a long string of Hiragana. He then started to write it again on a fresh piece of paper, this time showing the position of the characters on a crude outline of a human figure. The only pause the man made was to swallow the contents of the second vial.

Iruka closed the notebook and took a deep breath. He got up and turned to look at Kakashi. "I'm going to be sick now." With that, he walked over to the bathroom downing the third vial.

Kakashi followed him, "Are you all right?"

Suddenly Iruka and the porcelain were at a much closer distance. Kakashi could smell the drugs and alcohol over the smell of vomit. The chuunin was shaking as he continued to empty his stomach into the water in front of him.

"The mission worked." Iruka managed between retching.

"What did he do to you?" Kakashi didn't bother to hide the concern in his voice.

"Don't want to talk about it." He got up and walked to the shower and started the water running.

"That is not an acceptable answer. I am the ranking member of this team; I demand to know what happened." Kakashi was not.

"You are back up and you know it. Unnecessary backup." Iruka crawled into the shower, sitting there with the towel at his waist still. He let the water beat down on him as rivulets of blood washed down his body, staining the towel and slowly disappearing down the drain in red streaks.

Kakashi took a breath and changed his tone. He sat down on the floor next to the shower watching as the red tinted water ran down the drain, "How badly are you injured?" he kept his voice soft.

Iruka hung his head, "Mostly just superficial lacerations. Turns out that bastard likes to play with his knives a little more than the reports indicated." He started to rub at his skin, cleaning himself off, his hands shaking as he did it.

"You're shaking. Can I get you anything?"

Iruka looked up at Kakashi's visible eye, he started to say, "Do you like seeing me weak…" but then when he saw the look in Kakashi's visible eye, he glanced down at the floor, "I have a grey pouch in my backpack. It has clean clothes and painkillers in it. If you could …"

Kakashi nodded. He went and got the pouch. When he returned to the bathroom, the shower curtain was pulled.

"I'll be out in a few minutes, just leave it here, OK?" Iruka's voice had lost a lot of the anger it had shown earlier.

Kakashi went back into the main room and started disassemble the receiver until he realized that it was still working and he could hear Iruka in the shower. He turned down the volume, but listened. His teammate's safety more than enough justification in his mind.

He heard Iruka crying, quietly crying. The noise was just barely audible over the sound of the running water. Then in a painful whisper. "OK, pull yourself together. The pain isn't that bad. It'll heal. Everything will heal. At least Izu and Ko aren't here to see you like this. Just Kakashi. Fuck Ibiki, why the hell did he do this to me. OK, it's no big deal. Just cause he is the most 'I don't even notice anyone not worthy of my time' of all of them, fuck him." A deep shuddering breath. "Just pull yourself together." Another deep breath. "This will all seem a lot better after a few hours of sleep."

With that, the sound of the water stopped and Kakashi turned off the receiver. He had it put away in his pack by the time Iruka walked out, wearing a pair of grey sweatpants and a grey T-shirt. He didn't seem to even be trying to hide the limp he had. Kakashi didn't think the other man would appreciate answering questions about that particular limp.

Kakashi watched Iruka limp towards the bed, "Will you be ready to move come nightfall?"

Iruka crawled under the blankets, "Yeah. Nightfall. The return trip will take longer."

Kakashi nodded, "Can I get you anything?"

Iruka started to say 'no' when he paused, "Actually. I have a salve in my pack in the bathroom. I …" he paused, "I couldn't reach my back."

Kakashi got up without a word and grabbed the salve from the pack, noticing there were a lot of painkillers in there. He walked back over to the bed and sat down on his side waiting for Iruka to expose his back.

When the other man slowly pulled off his shirt, Kakashi bit his lower lip. It wasn't near the worst he had seen, but it was bad. The bruising was already everywhere, so as time passed it was going to get much worse. In addition to bruising, Iruka's back was covered in shallow knife wounds. Kakashi started to gently rub in the salve. He didn't say anything as he rubbed the healing balm into the other man's skin.

Internally, he wanted to hunt down Gatu and kill him. This soft flesh under his hands was not meant to be hurt like that. Sure, it was marked with scars, the man was a shinobi after all, but it wasn't scarred in the same way as Kakashi or his comrades were scarred. He rubbed the area where Iruka had taken the kunai gently, noticing that wound was almost healed, and probably wouldn't scar. The huge shuriken to the back the man took to save Naruto -- that was already a scar. The only other mark on the man's back was the tattoo on the right shoulder.

As he rubbed the salve into the skin below him, he felt the muscles under his fingers relax. Slowly Iruka was calming down, his breath becoming regular. Kakashi wasn't sure if it was from his fingers or from the painkillers the man had downed, but either way he didn't stop rubbing.

Iruka's back felt so warm under his fingers. When the chuunin rolled to his side, Kakashi didn't stop rubbing, instead he just started putting salve over the newly exposed flesh. The bruising was everywhere. Clear handprints could be seen against Iruka's tanned flesh. Nail marks were stark red on his hips. Everything Kakashi could get at without removing the sweatpants was covered in balm. Iruka had become extremely cooperative in his mostly asleep state.

Once he was sure he had gotten every ounce of battered flesh from the waist up covered in balm, he covered up the chuunin, only to notice Iruka had taken a hold of one of the belt loops on his pants. Carefully, so as to not wake the sleeping man, Kakashi crawled under the blankets and pulled them up over both of them. What the man probably needed more than anything was some rest, and Kakashi wasn't going to do anything to stop that.

If Iruka snuggled into Kakashi as they lay in the bed, burrowing his head under the older man's chin, Kakashi would never mention it. He was no stranger to missions that gave you nightmares. He just ran his fingers along Iruka's dyed blond hair and watched over the younger man as he fitfully slept. The jealous part of Kakashi's brain kept reminding him that come nightfall this would be over. Iruka would pull himself together and Kakashi would never see this again. The logical part of Kakashi's mind had to agree. This was a mission; Iruka wasn't the first person he held after a mission.

As Kakashi closed his eyes, a tiny part of his brain wondered if maybe Kakashi didn't want this to be a one-time thing. A warm body pressed against him, and those soft warm brown eyes. Maybe Kakashi wanted to feel what those lips would feel like without the mask. The logical part of his mind quickly suppressed those thoughts and Kakashi went back to what he does too well – thinking. He stayed there until nightfall, holding the chuunin and comforting him when he started to shake.

_---------------------- Notes --------------_

_Sorry for being so mean to Iruka._


	11. Chapter 11

_Disclaimer – If they were mine, that entire 'star' piece of filler would be on a cutting room floor, so not mine._

_No real warnings on this chapter._

_------------------------ 11 -----------------_

Water Runs Red – Chapter 11

Iruka slept fitfully and lightly as the salve slowly healed him. Kakashi tried to sleep; he knew they'd be moving all night. It wouldn't be the first time he went without sleep, but it would be better if he were rested. If anything came up on the way back, he doubted Iruka would be much help. He'd had to carry teammates back home from less traumatic missions than what he heard over that radio, so that the chuunin was holding himself together as well as he was, was a testament to his strength.

Kakashi kept thinking over the sounds he had heard over the radio and comparing them against the battered body in front of him. He knew better than many people did what it took to injure the human frame and how injuries were made. He was very familiar with all kinds of weapons and the affects of hand-to-hand combat. He knew how badly Iruka had been hurt. Actually, he knew the physical parts; he didn't know the mental parts.

Kakashi had been on few covert actions. When he was of a lower rank, he was much too young, and when he finally got to the age where he could go on such missions, his skills as an assassin had him in ANBU doing that type of dirty work. He knew some ANBU members did this type of mission, he just had never known anyone who wasn't female who did it. He also knew the female ANBU who did these missions never lasted long. Not that any ANBU lasted long in the job, but their tenure in the organization was noticeably shorter. If Iruka had been doing this for almost ten years, that would be longer than anyone Kakashi knew.

Slowly Iruka started to stir; as soon as he realized where he was, he flinched away from Kakashi and painfully sat up. The younger man ran his fingers through his hair and took a deep breath, "What time is it?"

Kakashi sat up, "About one more hour until sunset."

Iruka slowly pulled himself out of bed and started to methodically search himself over for damage. Kakashi watched as he moved each muscle of his body, slowly cataloging the damage. The cream had help reduce the bruising, but the chuunin still looked like he had been beaten to hell and back. He reached a hand up to his mouth and took out both of the piercings from his lips, his tongue absently licking at the blood removing them caused.

"Can you chakra burn these?" Iruka held the two piercings out in his palm towards Kakashi, "Careful though, one of them had a powerful sedative in it."

Kakashi carefully took the pieces of metal and wrapped them in a tag before starting it to burn with a smokeless chakra fire. "That explains how you knocked him out."

Iruka smiled, "Yeah, I hate those things, they always hit my teeth, but they work so damn well." He stretched and started to go through a slow stretching exercise.

"I've never seen anyone use a lip piercing to hide a drug like that."

Iruka shrugged, "Yeah, I used to carry them in a pocket in my tongue but people are getting smarter and checking there. Used to work with someone that carried things in an eyebrow piercing, but if his hands were trapped he was screwed, so I started the lip thing."

Kakashi watched as Iruka went through a series of stretches. "You have seriously been doing secret missions for almost ten years, haven't you?"

Iruka shrugged, and then turned it into a shoulder rolling motion, "Yeah." He gingerly test kicked the air, "Nothing compared to how long you've been doing high rank missions."

Kakashi watched as Iruka did a few punch/kick combos in the air, "Ten years is longer than most people are able to do this type of work."

"It's hell on relationships, but it isn't that bad, I guess. Work is work, 'not work' is 'not work'. You know what it's like. It's no different than going out and slashing someone to pieces. You have to leave that on the mission and not be that when you are in the village."

Kakashi nodded, "That's the theory, but it isn't always easy in reality. It's why ANBU members never last that long. The covert ones last even less time."

Iruka didn't pause from a simple series of punches and kicks he kept repeating, "Well, they don't have a classroom of children to force them to realize there is more to life than missions."

Kakashi lay back down on the bed, determined to at least rest for the rest of the time they were in the room, "I thought you didn't like teaching?"

Iruka paused and looked at him, "What made you think that?"

"You said teaching was your mission and it was almost over."

Iruka smiled, "Ahh, but it's the only mission I have that I love. I think the third will let me stay at the academy after this class graduates."

"Most people find teaching depressing. Just teaching kids how to kill each other?"

"Do you find teaching your three depressing?"

Kakashi looked up at the ceiling, glad his expression was hidden under his mask, "No. I'm pushing them so they get stronger. Weak ninja die."

Iruka started to pack up his bag, "I've learned a lot about being a shinobi by doing this – maybe too much. If you don't believe me that I love my job, check the graduation rates and the survival rates."

"I believe you. I was watching you when you were holding that shuriken practice."

Iruka tensed up, "I didn't even realize you were watching. I guess I need to keep my guard up more in the village."

"You were surrounded by the barely contained chakra of a twenty-four pre-genins. In addition, you had enough sense to notice that kunai coming at you AND realize its trajectory AND figure out if you dodged, the little girl would be hit. Not only that, you took the hit perfectly. I've seen ANBU with less awareness, so don't go acting like you failed." Kakashi was starting to get frustrated with the man constantly underestimating himself.

Iruka just nodded, "Sorry." He took a deep breath, "How did you know it was time to quit ANBU?"

Kakashi paused; he didn't normally like talking about it. He may have the starts of a friendship with the chuunin, but they weren't friends. He may have an attraction for him, but they weren't lovers. "I realized I was too good at the job. It stopped really affecting me. The day I realized that when I put on that mask, I stopped being me."

Iruka nodded, "Did you worry about the people who were still in ANBU when you left?"

Kakashi frowned, "I worried about them when I was in ANBU too."

Iruka nodded, "I don't know if I can live with myself if I leave the missions for others. The missions won't stop just because I stop. What if something happens to one of them?"

Kakashi sighed, "It's no different than if you died. You have to trust them to be able to do their jobs. I've seen what happens when people don't get out when they need to. They become hollow shells that might as well not be alive and then one day they don't come back from a mission. They get their name written on the stone and no one really notices because they stopped being a person long before their name was written on that stone."

Iruka nodded, "I can't imagine any of my students doing this."

Kakashi was momentarily surprised at the emptiness of that statement. "They are shinobi, they can't be protected forever."

Iruka nodded, "I know. I know. But I want to protect them. Every year I have to give my recommendations of who would be best suited to work in Ibiki's unit. I have to give recommendations of who could be trained to do this. The last name I gave him was Kiba's. He's twelve. Twelve is so young and already on Ibiki's radar as someone that might be useful. I was only fifteen when I went on my first mission like this though."

Kakashi was thinking, what about Kiba made him good for missions like this. The boy was all over the place, carefree, wild, and never quiet. You always knew when he was around, if it hadn't been for Naruto, Kiba would have been voted hands down the #1 loudest Ninja.

"Iruka, they are strong kids."

"Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura almost died on your mission to wave."

Kakashi nodded, "True, but they didn't. They surprised me. They are stronger than they were."

"I remember one day when Sakura was seven or eight, she dodged a kick poorly and scrapped her knee. She had blood allover her hands and was in tears. I remember washing her knee and patching her up with a kiss to the forehead and telling her that she was a ninja of Konoha before sending her back out to practice. Is that what we do? Patch up the kids and shove them back out?"

"Iruka, yes. For the same reasons you sent her back out. If she gave up she would have never grown into the kunoichi she is now, and she'll just keep getting stronger." Kakashi knew the man was protective about his students, but he hadn't realized how deep that ran.

Iruka nodded, "You're right. Maybe that will help me sleep at night if I ever decide to quit." He started picked up the notepad with the writing on it and placed it in his pack, "Thank you Kakashi. The sun is setting. We can leave soon."

Kakashi made sure everything was gathered up as he prepared to leave.

"Oh, Kakashi-san?" Iruka's voice had a playful note back to it.

"Hmm?"

"Hot?"

Kakashi was once again very happy for the mask covering his face. "It seemed appropriate at the time."

"Appropriate. I see. And the hitch your voice did when you said it?"

"They were very tight pants." Thankfully, years of reading Icha Icha in public had steeled him to being able to say such lines without undo emotion showing.

"Good thing I didn't wear the other ones then."

"Other ones?"

Iruka laughed, "I've been doing this for a long time, I have a substantial wardrobe. When you were wandering in my apartment, you didn't see the half of it."

Kakashi chuckled as he grabbed his pack, "That almost sounds like an invitation."

"Not to rummage through my drawers, but maybe a drink some night?"

As they left the room, Kakashi nodded, "Sure, just tell me when and where." As they snuck out of the town it occurred to Kakashi -- Iruka had just asked him out. Through the long run back to Konoha as they jumped from tree limb to tree limb a part of Kakashi's mind was stuck on the fact that Iruka had just asked him out. What would Asuma and Kurenai think?

_------------------ Notes --------------_

_Sorry this one is short, but the next thing will be kind of big so this was a good place for a chapter break. Thanks for the kind words on the evilness I did to Iruka, he's tougher than he looks though and can handle a lot._

_As always I love getting the little messages in my inbox when you review my writing. _


	12. Chapter 12

_Disclaimer – Is there a movie coming out about Izumo? Hmmm, well then I guess I still don't own Naruto. I do own a dead plant though._

_Warnings Male/Male date action. Jonin silliness. You have been warned._

------------------------------- 12 ------------------------------

Water Runs Red – Chapter 12

Despite his injuries, Iruka made good time getting to Konoha and they arrived before the sun was up. By the time they walked through the gates, Iruka was starting to slow and limp more than a little.

Kakashi walked with Iruka towards the center of town, "Iruka? Are you sure that you're OK? We could stop at the hospital."

Iruka shook his head, "One of the perks of the job is getting to use the ANBU medics. They gossip less. We need to get this to Ibiki and debrief anyways."

Kakashi nodded and followed the other man towards the Torture and Interrogation portion of the ANBU building. At 3AM, there was no need to hide where they were going. Just before they entered the building Iruka asked, "What are you doing tonight, I guess it would be tonight, say 8PM?"

Kakashi frowned, trying to think if there was something he should be remembering, "I don't think I have anything."

"Good, then you can pick me up at 8."

Iruka ducked through the door and walked straight to a desk where an ANBU member was completing reports. The man didn't bother to have his mask on inside the building at this hour. He looked up, "Need me to get Ibiki?" Iruka nodded and kept walking towards Ibiki's office.

The ANBU member nodded to Kakashi with a muttered, "Hatake-san" as he pulled out a scroll and brushed a bloodied finger across it, dispatching the bird that appeared.

Kakashi followed Iruka into Ibiki's office and leaned up against a wall. Iruka was digging though his pack and pulling out the notebook he had written on earlier.

Iruka then pulled out a blank mission report scroll from Ibiki's desk and started filling it in with amazing speed. Kakashi glanced over at the chuunin. He had definitely not been lying about how many missions he had done for Ibiki. He flew through the ANBU format report, which was vastly different from the standard format.

Even though Iruka was writing extremely quickly, his penmanship was perfect. Every kanji character perfect, without the strokes running together. Kakashi made a mental note that yes, Iruka did have room to talk when he bitched about Kakashi's penmanship on mission reports.

When Iruka got to the listing of injuries portion he turned to Kakashi, "You didn't manage to hurt yourself in the hotel, right?" He almost kept a straight face but started to smile when Kakashi looked confused.

"Hmmm. Hatake Kakashi – No injuries. Umino Iruka – cuts, abrasions, etc within mission parameters, referred for medical evaluation. Leave a blank for Ibiki to sign and that's all of it."

He leaned back, "This is the part that sucks about getting here god awful early -- Ibiki takes longer to get here than it takes to fill out the mission…"

"You were saying?" The door opened and Ibiki walked in.

Iruka smiled, "Morning, sweetness."

Ibiki grumbled, "Report."

Iruka yawned and stretched, almost catlike, "Mission successful. I need to modify the profile on Gatu-bastard, but here is the message. Its in code and I couldn't decipher it in the time I had so I just brought it in its raw form." He handed over the notebook, "Incase the positioning is relevant I also wrote it on a sketch of the man's back, but I don't think it is." He also handed over the mission report, "the report is done as well, and I left a spot for you to send me to the medic."

Ibiki looked at Iruka, "That bad?"

Iruka shrugged, "Not the worst ever, just some internal injuries that could use some chakra infusion."

Ibiki nodded and smiled, "No problem. Get off with you. Go see a doctor. I need to talk to Kakashi."

Iruka nodded and bowed formally. With a mischievous smirk he stood up, "I will leave you and my babysitter alone …" Before anyone could comment on the inflection on 'alone', he left.

Ibiki sighed, "Well, he seems in better spirits than I expected. How did it go?"

Kakashi paused to think of what he should say. "I hate missions like this." When Ibiki looked up from the report, Kakashi continued. "I was freaking useless. There was no way to succeed in the mission and not let that man hurt Iruka. All I could do was treat his injuries when he got back to the hotel room."

Ibiki nodded, "Did he break?"

Kakashi wasn't surprised at the ANBU terminology. ANBU often broke after a bad mission; the human mind could only take so much, even if that human was a shinobi. He had lost count of how many people he had patched back together after they broke. He wasn't sure how many times he had broken only to be patched back together. "No. He wasn't in great shape, but he would have been fine without backup."

He paused before asking a question, "Why aren't these missions done by ANBU? Why chuunin?"

Ibiki looked over at Kakashi, "ANBU tattoos its members, that's a liability. When a kunoichi isn't tattooed, no one asks questions, if we didn't tattoo a man, they would. Chuunin are less noticed as well. Without being able to use their undercover abilities and undercover missions, most of the guys wouldn't get jonin rank anyhow. I know it seems odd, but they really are the best for this work."

Kakashi shook his head, "It just seems like too much to ask."

"They know what they are in for, and they can leave at any time." Ibiki sighed, "Look, I know. I hate sending them out. I hate sending Kunoichi on those missions too, but we need the information and sometimes it is the only way to get it, you know that. Go get some rest."

As Kakashi stood to leave, Ibiki put a hand on his shoulder, "Thank you for going on this mission. I know you didn't have to accept, but I didn't want to send him alone again."

Kakashi nodded, he was certain Ibiki would not tell him what happened last time he sent the chuunin out alone. He made his way home. He was all the way in his bed before he realized that he had a date in a little over sixteen hours.

The next day, Kakashi was less late than normal to watch his team train. He had found out that the nominations for the chuunin exam would be tomorrow. Asuma and Kurenai had told him they were putting both their teams up for it. Kakashi was feeling like he should put his three up. They were good. They weren't perfect, but they were good. The exam would test them and not be easy, but he wouldn't be surprised to see them make it though to the final stage of the test. He put them through their paces more than usual that morning, under the premise of thinking they had slacked off while he was gone.

He was reading his book less than usual today too. Tonight was his date with Iruka, and he still wasn't sure how that had happened. He was pretty sure dressing in his uniform was not going to cut it for this.

After sending the kids home, exhausted and dirty he decided to get ready for his date. When he stepped out of the shower, it started to occur to him if it really was a date. It seemed like an invitation to a date, but normally he was the one initiating dates, and not that frequently either. Maybe it was just going out for drinks as friends?

Kakashi walked around the apartment as he pulled on jeans and a thin black turtleneck. Once his facemask was on, he decided to go with his normal forehead protector to cover his eye. He'd just take the safe route and dress appropriately for either friendly drinks or date drinks.

As he picked through leftovers in his fridge, he started to wonder why he was going on a date, if he was going on a date. Where was he going to go on his date, anyways? Iruka had said drinks and not dinner, if he had said dinner; Kakashi would have known it was a date. Drinks could mean anything, but it had been right after Iruka had teased him about having said hot. He still couldn't believe he had told the chuunin that he looked hot.

As the time of the meeting approached, Kakashi left his apartment and started to walk towards Iruka's. He didn't think bringing flowers was appropriate. Heck, he wasn't even positive it was a date. Plus, Iruka didn't seem that much like the flowers type.

He knocked on the door of Iruka's apartment and heard movement inside, "Just a second." Was called out from inside the apartment. Iruka pulled the door open a little over a minute later and gestured Kakashi in. Iruka's hair had the color washed out of the roots but the blonde was still at the ends, Kakashi was also surprised to see the chuunin's hair was not up in its usual ponytail. Iruka was dressed in brown Khaki's and a deep green T-shirt. Iruka turned and gathered some folders off of the couch and walked back over to Kakashi. "I'm sorry about this, but I need to drop these off at the Hokage's office, then I'm free."

Kakashi smiled, "No problem. They sure seem to be keeping you busy." He glanced at the huge stacks of folders still in the chuunin's living room.

Iruka laughed, "Yeah. Stupid Chuunin exam coming up."

Kakashi nodded, "Do you need any help carrying that stuff?"

Iruka obviously didn't need help, but he handed some of the stack over anyways, "Sure." Iruka kept up a light conversation as they walked to the Hokage tower. He talked about how the chuunin exams this time were going to be huge; they already had information from several of the other hidden villages showing the attendance was going to probably be double what it normally was. Also that many of the people this time had previously been in the exam so the number passing the first exam should be greater. It seemed like no time before they were at the Hokage tower and Iruka was dropping off paperwork with a promise to stop by first thing in the morning and finish up everything before the meeting. Kakashi assumed he meant the meeting where the jonin-sensei would say which leaf teams were ready for the exam.

As they left, Kakashi joked, "I guess tomorrow's meeting is one I need to be at on time."

Iruka laughed, "Only if you don't want me to have the Hokage ANBU your ass."

Kakashi laughed, actually laughed. "Bah, already you're threatening to send ANBU after me. Where do you want to go for drinks?"

Iruka shrugged, "Anywhere you want to go."

Kakashi lead the way to a little bar Asuma sometimes went with him to after missions. It was one of those places where shinobi and civilians mixed. When they got there the place was busy, but not packed and Kakashi lead Iruka over to a booth in the back.

Iruka smiled after they placed drink orders with a waitress. "I wanted to say sorry for being an ass to you earlier."

Kakashi was noticing how nice Iruka looked with his hair down like that. He could see why the younger man kept it up though, it seemed to have a mind of its own and kept getting into Iruka's face, but Iruka looked very nice brushing the blonde tipped locks away.

"I should be the one apologizing, I mean… It would have been better to just talk to you instead of, well instead of being typical me." Kakashi shrugged, "Well Pakkun is happy, evidently they were very good dog biscuits."

Iruka was glancing through the appetizer menu when he laughed, "I should have known that you would act like that though, I blame it on having a really bad hangover." The waitress came back and put their drinks down, Kakashi had ordered sake and Iruka had ordered something more complicated.

Kakashi looked at the Chuunin's drink order while the younger man ordered appetizers; he hadn't heard what the man had ordered when he placed his drink order. He had a bottle of beer, and a shot glass of a clear liquid and a small plate with a couple of slices of lemon on it.

Suddenly Kakashi felt a familiar presence. He looked up in time to see Asuma and Kurenai walking towards him. As the waitress left, Iruka noticed too and muttered, "Incoming."

Kakashi watched as the younger man hid most of his chakra and set his elbows on the table, hiding most of his scar behind his fingers. Asuma walked over and thumped Kakashi on the back, "Hey, I didn't expect to see you out."

Kurenai was behind Asuma and was looking at Iruka without seeming to stare. Kakashi could tell the instant she figured out who it was because her red eyes widened.

Asuma was oblivious, and had evidently been drinking before they reached the bar. Kurenai's eyes narrowed as she looked at Kakashi. "When did Kakashi become so social, this is the second time this week I've seen you out?"

Asuma leaned into Kakashi to whisper into his ear, but being a little tipsy, his whisper was loud enough the other two could hear him as well, "So is this a date?"

Iruka allowed half of his mouth to curl up into a smile and Kakashi had a distinct feeling that Iruka was enjoying Kakashi rapidly think of the best way to answer that question.

Kakashi decided to dodge the bullet and use the fact that Asuma and Kurenai were still trying to keep up the façade that they weren't seeing each other romantically, "Are the two of you on a date?"

Asuma straightened up, "We decided we wanted to get some drinks since we aren't training the Genin tomorrow."

Kurenai finally spoke, "Perhaps none of us should drink too much, since we all have to be at the meeting in the morning." Her gaze was fixed on Iruka when she said it.

Iruka frowned, "I wouldn't worry about me making it to the meeting."

Kurenai shrugged, "I'm just saying, since you weren't at the mission desk the day after the party."

Kakashi cleared his voice; ignoring the fact that Asuma finally realized that the other man was Iruka. "It would have been difficult for him to be at the mission desk since he was on a mission himself."

Asuma looked at Kurenai then at Iruka, they looked like there was more to this. "A mission?"

Iruka smiled sweetly, his standard 'I'm just a chuunin, please take your mission scroll' smile. "Oh, you know. Same old same old, just a little thing that needed to be taken care of before the exam. The paperwork with such things never seems to end."

Kurenai smiled, "Ahh, a bureaucratic emergency I am sure. I didn't realize such things were considered missions."

Kakashi was surprised at the venom in her words. For his part Iruka was not rising up to the bait, but Kakashi could see the tension in the other man's shoulders. He wasn't sure what the exchange meant, but he felt the need to reassure Iruka in some way. Maybe the other man wasn't sure if this was a date either.

The dots were connected quickly in Kakashi's mind, what good was being a genius if he couldn't think his way out of this mess. If Iruka was in doubt about it being a date, then obviously he had intended for his invitation to be able to be seen as a date. If Iruka was leaving open that possibility, then that would mean Iruka was open to this being a date, so all Kakashi had to do was to treat it like a date and it was a date.

Kakashi laughed, "I don't know. I mean paperwork can be pretty dangerous, he has to put up with my mission reports after all." With that, he reached out and grabbed Iruka's hand. He hoped that Asuma and Kurenai wouldn't notice the awkwardness and instead just notice the gesture.

Iruka replied sweetly, probably more of a smile than intended when Kurenai's mouth partially dropped open. "Kakashi, you have managed to dodge everyone I've thrown back at you."

"That's pure luck on my part, you have a wicked throw."

Asuma was looking from Iruka to Kakashi and then he grabbed Kurenai's arm, "We should probably not disturb their date." He paused for a moment as if waiting for someone to correct him on the 'date' thing before pulling Kurenai off through the bar and away from the other two.

As soon as they were gone, Iruka relaxed, "Thanks."

"No problem. She can be a bitch sometimes. What does she have against you?"

Iruka took a deep breath, "I was on a mission once with one of her former students. Her student didn't come back in the best of shape. She was rather upset at me."

Kakashi nodded, "I see."

Iruka shrugged, "Thanks for your help though. Somehow I think Asuma is going to be giving you a hard time for a while."

"A hard time for what?"

Iruka looked at Kakashi and then smiled, "I see." He turned back to his rather complicated drink as the waitress set down some yakatori appetizers. Iruka looked up at Kakashi while smiling, "So this is a date?"

Kakashi could tell Iruka was up to something. "Yeah. If that's all right with you."

Iruka picked up a piece of lemon and took Kakashi's wrist in the other hand. He rubbed the lemon onto Kakashi's wrist. Then he took a pinch of salt and put it in the palm of that same hand. Still holding onto Kakashi's wrist, he took the shot glass of clear liquid with his other hand.

The jonin didn't move, he watched as Iruka lean forward to his hand and licked, yes licked the salt out of his palm. The fact he was being licked by a very handsome man barely had time to register in Kakashi's mind before Iruka was looking up at him. For a second those brown eyes closed as Iruka drank the shot very quick and then leaned back down to suck the lemon juice off of Kakashi's wrist.

Kakashi was speechless. While speechless was normal for him, having his wrist sucked at by an extremely sexy man was also not normal.

Iruka looked up at Kakashi as he let go of the other man's wrist. He smiled, "Thank you for the bail out."

Kakashi swallowed, "No problem, anytime. Wow."

Iruka picked up a skewer of chicken and started to pick at it, "Wow?"

Kakashi nodded, "Yeah, wow. I've never seen that before."

Iruka giggled, in a manly fashion, but it was still a giggle, "You should see the non censored version of that move."

"That was censored?"

"The mask" Iruka made a gesture as if that explained it. "Lemon on the lips and salt on the neck." Iruka smiled, "Then again there may be some more creative modifications out there as well.

"Creative?" Kakashi laughed, "I think I see what they mean about some groups being a bit 'wild'."

"Really? I thought my strict teacher thing would have ended those wild rumors."

"In all honesty, I thought the rumors were off base. I mean, when I was asking my students about you, it was like you were a step away from sainthood."

Iruka shrugged, still smiling, but a much more honest smile than the one he normally wore, "Yeah. Naruto would probably attack you for corrupting me by taking me drinking."

Kakashi chuckled, "And Sakura with those big green eyes sniffling something about, 'Kakashi-sensei, how could you!'"

Iruka laughed as he polished off the last of the yakatori, "If you aren't careful, Sasuke might even grunt in your general direction."

Kakashi's visible eye closed as he tried not to laugh at the image. "He isn't the most talkative."

"He's a good ….ahhh" Suddenly Iruka's look went from relaxed and happy to irritated. "Damn it."

"What's wrong?"

"My presence is being requested and whoever did the summoning has the grace of Naruto." He reached back and rubbed his shoulder, "Damn that hurt."

"So that's why you have a tattoo." Kakashi was very familiar with the summoning abilities of the ANBU tattoos; he still regretted the day he got that thing since it was basically a leash allowing him to be summoned at any time.

"Yeah. Look, I'm sorry; I have to go before someone gets pissy. Umm, maybe I could get a rain check?"

Kakashi smiled, "How about dinner tomorrow? 6pm? I'll stop by your place?"

Iruka leaned over and kissed Kakashi's lips through the mask, "It's a date." With that, he hurried off leaving Kakashi to finish his Sake alone, or it would have been alone if Kurenai and Asuma weren't still in the bar and saw Iruka leave.

Kakashi barely had time to finish his drink when Asuma plopped down next to him. "That was a short date."

"He had something come up." Kakashi was watching Kurenai carefully as she sat down.

She frowned at him, "You should be careful Kakashi. That one will chew you up and spit you out. Unless that's what you're looking for."

"Look, I don't need you two watching out for me." Kakashi made his way past Asuma and walked out of the bar. Kurenai acting like that was unexpected. When he sensed Asuma following him, he checked to see if she was with him. When he determined Asuma was alone, he slowed down to let the other man catch up easily.

"Kakashi, sorry bout that."

"I didn't realize there was bad blood between them."

Asuma lit a cigarette, "Yeah, I don't know the whole story, but she doesn't trust him. Normally she is pretty good at knowing who to trust."

"I thought you thought I was a good judge of people."

"Kakashi, it isn't like that. She told me things, things she probably shouldn't have told me about him. He's been around; he's been around a lot."

"I know."

"Doesn't that bother you?"

"Does it bother you thinking of the people Kurenai has slept with?"

"She's a kunoichi. That would be like judging her for the people she's killed."

"Look I appreciate your concern, but I can have dinner or drinks with who I like."

"Look, I just don't want to see someone checking off Hatake Kakashi for the hell of it. Just so some chuunin nobody can say been there done that."

"I don't want to have this conversation and don't ever call him a nobody in front of me again, or I will show you exactly how far I can kick your ass."

"Whatever." Asuma stalked off, leaving Kakashi to wander his way back to his apartment.

Kakashi lay in bed thinking, why did he let Asuma's words get to him so much. He knew his friend spoke first and thought second, or maybe third. Was it that Iruka was right? If a kunoichi did things it was excused, but he had to hide his actions so carefully because even what did get out marred him as unworthy. Kakashi couldn't help thinking, what if everything was known to the rest of the shinobi. Its like being in ANBU, you don't want anyone to really know what you do, except with ANBU there is a sense of pride at being in the organization and an amount of respect for the achievement. He'd have to talk with Iruka after the meeting tomorrow. He should be in a good mood after all, knowing that nine of his most recent students were being nominated for the exam.

_---------------------- Notes -------------------_

_Poor Kakashi. Could be he any more wrong with his final thought?_

_Well this pretty much wrote itself. Obviously, the next thing is the chuunin exam argument. I will be following the Manga continuity from this point forward instead of the anime. _

_Thanks for everyone who is reading and reviewing. This is probably the last update for the next few days, but I would love to hear what everyone is thinking so far._


	13. Chapter 13

_Disclaimer – Is there a movie coming out about Izumo? Hmmm, well then I guess I still don't own Naruto. I do own a dead plant though._

_I am following the MANGA dialog for the near infamous chuunin exam confrontation scene. This is the first place where I am breaking from Anime continuity solely because the 2 scenes are mutually exclusive, but the differences are minor_

_------------------------------- 13 ------------------------------_

Water Runs Red – Chapter 13

The next morning, Kakashi was eating breakfast at the break room in the administrative building. He wasn't there so much to eat breakfast, as he was to see who showed up in the room. He was looking for a chance to hunt down either Genma or Izumo or Kotetsu. As he sat there eating a bagel and reading his book, he paused to think about what he would say if he saw any of them. It was still early so he knew several people would be stopping by. Ninja might be good at taking care of themselves out in the field, but few mastered such domestic tasks as breakfast, especially when free warm food was readily available.

Snacking on a bagel while reading Icha Icha was not the worst of things that could be happening after all. He saw Asuma and Kurenai walk in together; did those two seriously think they were fooling anyone? This was a village of ninja. Everyone knew. They had to know that everyone knew. Asuma saw him and started to make their way over towards the table where Kakashi was sitting. Mentally Kakashi swore, he didn't want to run into those two, he was going to try and get Iruka information and having the two most anti-Iruka people Kakashi knew of sitting at his table wasn't going to help.

Asuma plopped down in a chair, "Hey Kakashi."

Without even putting down his book, he simply said "Yo." As he flipped a page.

Kurenai sat down, "Are you putting your team through the exam?" She sounded annoyed to Kakashi's ears.

"Yes."

Asuma grunted, "That makes all nine of the rookies."

"It's a surprise." Kurenai didn't sound happy about that surprise.

"A surprise?" Kakashi lowered his book to look at her.

"Considering." She didn't look like she wanted to elaborate.

"Considering what?"

"Kakashi," Asuma interrupted, "Lets just drop it, OK?"

Kakashi sighed and went back to reading his book, "I didn't start it."

Kakashi sensed a familiar presence and looked up to see Iruka walking into the room with his arms full of scrolls. He was still wearing the jeans and T-shirt from the night before, but had a forehead protector on and his hair up in a ponytail. The blond ends of his hair were also gone, evidently by cutting since it seemed there was less hair in the ponytail than normal. Kakashi was pretty sure he had been here all night.

Iruka walked straight over to his table, "Yuhi-sensei, Sarutobi-sensei, Kakashi-sensei."

Kakashi smiled at Iruka, making sure his visible eye curved a bit so the chuunin would know he was smiling. Asuma just looked up at Iruka, and Kurenai didn't even look up. "Sorry for interrupting you, but these are for each of you in preparation for the meeting today." He handed each of them a scroll neatly labeled with their names, actually, he placed Kurenai's on the table since she didn't hold her hand out for her scroll.

"Iruka-sensei, thank you. Have you had breakfast yet?" Kakashi gestured to an empty chair next to him.

"Ah, no not yet. Oh! Excuse me, I'll be right back."

He quickly walked over to Ibiki who had just walked into the room and started to have a conversation with him while handing over a couple of the scrolls he was carrying. Without even breaking stride in his conversation with Ibiki, he handed a scroll to Hayate as the man walked into the room. Kakashi noted this left Iruka with only one scroll in his arms still.

While Iruka was talking to Ibiki, Kurenai muttered to Asuma, almost soft enough for Kakashi not to hear, "What is he doing bothering Ibiki."

Asuma muttered, "He never did know his place."

Kakashi looked up, "I'm not deaf." He closed his book, "Besides, if you thought before speaking, you'd realize that the Hokage has Iruka doing the administrative work of the Chuunin exam, thus he gave us our information in reference to our Genin teams. The logical guess would be that Ibiki is also involved in the exam in some way since Iruka is obviously taking care of the organization for the exams. Most people don't stay up all night working when it isn't important."

Iruka left Ibiki and grabbed some coffee before walking back to Kakashi's table, "Kakashi-san, you wouldn't know where I could find Gai-sensei?"

Kakashi shook his head and stood up, "No, but I wanted to speak to you in private."

He walked with Iruka out of the room, not bothering to look back at his table companions. They walked down a side hallway before Kakashi stopped him, placing his hand on Iruka's shoulder, "They're giving me a hard time about you."

Iruka smiled sadly, "I'm sorry. I understand." He gave Kakashi a quick, shallow bow, "Thank you for telling me privately."

It took a second for Kakashi to realize what Iruka meant, "I'm just telling you, I'm not backing out of our date or anything." When Iruka paused, Kakashi continues, "I don't think they're right, but if they are, then we should call it off, if they're wrong then screw them."

Iruka looked up at Kakashi, pausing. "Umm, if I don't know what they are saying, how do I know if it is true?"

Kakashi reached back and scratched the back of his neck, "Oh yeah. That your interest is just to check of Hatake Kakashi in some erotic version of a bingo book"

Iruka blinked. Then Iruka tried not to smile. Very quickly, Iruka completely failed and started to laugh. "Worried the infamous copy-nin is going to be taken down by a chuunin?" He grabbed the front of Kakashi's shirt and pulled him towards him, bringing his mouth right next to his exposed ear. His voice was soft when he whispered, lips just brushing Kakashi's ear, "I'm not saying I'm in love with you, but I promise I'm not toying with you. Maybe there won't be a third date, maybe there will be, I don't know. My intentions are not what they think they are."

With that, Iruka stepped back and looked at Kakashi, "We'll talk over dinner tonight, OK?" He smiled, "I need to get this to Gai-sensei and I need to get a shower and a uniform before the meeting in three hours."

Kakashi nodded and watched as Iruka ran off. He was still bothered, but the chuunin's words had reassured him to an extent. Maybe Kurenai was just that off base on this one.

Kakashi set his team to training before heading into the meeting; he was actually early … well early for him. He was only five minutes late and these things never started on time anyways.

Kakashi spent the first portion of the meeting just watching who else was here. He didn't know a lot of the other jonin sensei beyond names heard in conversation. He knew Gai, of course, and Asuma and Kurenai, but the others he didn't know. Sure he'd seen them around, but he didn't –know- them. Genma and Hayate were there as well, as was Ibiki and Anko. Raidou was off in a corner. That was it for people he had ever worked with. Iruka was standing towards the back of the room. The blank look on the chuunin's face pretty much confirmed to Kakashi that the man was napping with his eyes open and standing.

The Hokage was going on about the chuunin exams and then he was asking for the rookie Genin-sensei to report. "You may begin Kakashi."

Kakashi straightened up and said the words according to proper form. "Cell number 7 led by Kakashi, consists of Uchia Sasuke, Uzumaki Naruto, and Hanuro Sakura. I vow upon the honor of my clan, the Hatake That all three of them are ready for the chuunin selection exam"

He heard Iruka suddenly straighten and gasp, "What!" He definitely didn't sound excited like Kakashi had hoped.

With a slight noise of annoyance, Kurenai said her speech, "Cell number 8, Led by Kurenai, consists of Hyuga Hinata, Inuzuka Kiba, and Aburame Shino. I vow upon the honor of my own clan, the Yuhi, that I am as certain as my esteemed colleague is that all three are ready for the chuunin selection exam." The sarcasm on 'esteemed colleague' was not missed on Kakashi.

Quickly, before Kakashi could say anything to Kurenai, Asuma said his lines too, "Cell number 10, Led by Asuma, consists of Yamanaka Ino, Nara Shikamaru, and Akimichi Choji. I vow upon my clan the Sarutobi, that I am equally as certain that all three are ready for the chuunin selection exam."

The Hokage glanced from Iruka to the three jonin-sensei, "How unusual for all three of you to have unhesitantly assented…"

Iruka cleared his throat, "J-Just a moment."

The Hokage looked over at Iruka, "Yes Iruka?"

Iruka straightened up and slipped into extremely formal speech structure. If it was from anyone less known for following rules, it would have almost been insulting, "Hokage-sama, please allow me to speak. Forgive me if I overstep but all of the nin students just named were my students while they were at the academy. Certainly, they are all gifted and show both commitment and talent … But it is too soon for kids that young to be stepping up to chuunin level. Only with time will they have the kind of experience and maturity that those exams require. I don't see why their sensei can't see that." He glanced at Kakashi has he said it, his eyes almost pleading to say it was a joke or something.

Kakashi was torn about what to do. The kids were ready. He knew Iruka had a hard time seeing that people were ready. He was treating his comrades with the same kid gloves he was trying to treat these Genin with. Kakashi knew this was going to go bad, but it had to be done. Iruka had to stop thinking he had to protect everyone to the point they couldn't grow. "I was six years younger than Naruto when I attained the rank of Chuunin, Iruka."

Kakashi could see the betrayal in Iruka's eyes as he paled, "Naruto's not like you. Do you want to destroy those children? You all know what they call the chuunin selection exams, don't you?"

Kurenai glared at Kakashi. He had to put an end to this and quick before it got ugly. Iruka was temperamental to begin with, but Iruka with no sleep and too much caffeine was something not many people wanted to go off. "They gripe about every detail of every mission. Just for once, I think it would do them good to find out what real pain is. Let's admit it, breaking them would be fun."

Humor evidently wasn't going to work and Kakashi realized his mistake, but too late to correct it. Iruka's hands curled into fists, "Are you out of your mind?"

Kakashi took a deep breath and tried his best to diffuse the wound up chuunin, "It was a joke Iruka-sensei. I understand you… and I'm sorry if my recommendation upsets you, but I stand by it."

Iruka stuttered, "But…"

Kurenai glared at Kakashi again and in her most bitchy voice, "Kakashi, can we finish with this?"

Kakashi tried to give Iruka a 'we'll talk later' look and put the matter to rest. "It's none of your business anyway… They're not your students anymore. They are solders under my command."

Asuma muttered under his breath, "What a pest."

Iruka just gave Kakashi a very pissed off look, turned, and walked out of the room. Ibiki and Anko's eyes widened as they watched Iruka leave, then both of them glanced at Kakashi. Nothing more was said and the meeting continued with Gai saying his students were also ready.

Kakashi blanked out during the rest of the meeting, all he could think about was how pissed Iruka looked.

Once the meeting was over Kurenai gave Kakashi a smile, "See I knew you'd wise up eventually."

"Kurenai, Fuck you." Kakashi was suddenly saved by having to confront Kurenai or Asuma any more by Ibiki calling out, "Kakashi." Without a second's hesitation, Kakashi quickly walked over to speak to Ibiki.

Ibiki lead him off to an empty corner of the room, delivering glares at anyone who was showing too much interest in what was going on – namely at Kurinei and Asuma.

When he spoke, his tone was quiet and he was making sure his lips could not be viewed by anyone still in the room. "Kakashi. Quit fighting with Iruka. We got the message decoded and something is going to happen at the chuunin exam. We don't know when, but if you see anything suspicious, I need to know right away. I'll be running the first exam. Since you have a team in the completion, I want you to see what you can find out about the other sensei."

Kakashi nodded, "Of course."

Kakashi teleported out of the room, not so much because Asuma and Kurenai were standing by the doorway, but he was just the type to poof in and out of rooms. Doors were for lesser ninja – or at least ninja that didn't have a red-eyed psycho waiting for them to approach said door.

From his new vantage point on the roof, Kakashi sat down. He hid his chakra and decided he needed to think this through. On an almost autopilot he gave his students their chuunin applications, delighting that at least his actions had caused some happiness. Once he was out of their sight, he summoned Pakkun.

Pakkun took one look around and rolled his pug eyes, "Not again?"

"Just find him."

Pakkun started walking to find the chuunin's scent, "You know, this isn't healthy."

"I made him mad, so I need to go talk to him."

Soon, Pakkun caught the chuunin's scent and started to lead Kakashi out past the training grounds. The trees got thicker as they approached a small pond. Kakashi masked his chakra as Pakkun and he approached the pond. Iruka was sitting in the center of the pond, cross-legged with his eyes closed. He was using chakra to keep himself on the surface of the water.

Kakashi hid behind a bush and watched as Iruka remained in the center of the pond without moving. The water under him started to move, a rhythmic vibration to its surface. Slowly the water under Iruka started to rotate clockwise. After a few minutes of clockwise rotation, the water stopped and started to rotate counter-clockwise. Through out it all, Iruka remained sitting without any expression on his face.

The water calmed again and then it started to ripple. As if raindrops were hitting the surface. It was then that Kakashi noticed the weakness in the motion. The circle was no longer perfectly round. Iruka's face became more determined and the circle started to even out. As the circle evened the ripple affect became sporadic. Iruka's face relaxed and the circle flattened, becoming perfectly still water again. The circular motions resumed before the circle once again rippling in an imitation of rain. This time the circle remained perfect and the rain effect became stronger.

Iruka let out a deep breath and the rain affect stopped. The circle of smoothness expanded, rushing out in all directions as it faded. Iruka turned and looked at Kakashi has his awareness passed over the man, noticing him watching him, "How long have you been there?"

Pakkun muttered something under his breath, which Kakashi managed not to hear.

"A few minutes." He stepped out from behind the bush with Pakkun at his heels. "What were you doing?"

Iruka walked over towards the bank of the pond, the chakra in his feet keeping him from falling through the surface of the water. Kakashi could tell the other man was drained, "Chakra exercise."

"It's impressive."

Iruka shrugged, "It's just the same principle we all use to walk across water."

Kakashi nodded, he wasn't going to argue with the chuunin about something like this, "Did Ibiki talk to you about keeping your eyes open?"

Iruka nodded, "I assume you are the jonin-sensei he decided to use to keep an eye on the other ones?"

Kakashi nodded, "Look, I'm sorry about surprising you with the nomination."

Iruka shook his head, "No, I should be the one apologizing for letting my temper get to me. Look, this isn't going to work."

"The chuunin exam?"

Iruka sighed and looked up at the sky, "No, I shouldn't have asked you out for drinks. Let's just pretend it never happened."

Kakashi suddenly realized he was being dumped. Without even getting to go on a complete date, he was getting dumped.

"Because of Kurenai?"

"Because this is too much trouble for something that's not going to work out anyways." Iruka glanced down, meeting Pakkun's eyes. For once, the Pug was quiet.

"What do you mean, not going to work out?"

"I decided I can't quit working for Ibiki."

"Why would that change anything?"

"Kakashi, listen to me. The best thing for you to do is just drop it. Splitting the jonin-sensei based upon who likes me and who doesn't was never my intention. We cannot have that type of divisiveness right now. Something bad is going to happen and we can not have anything stupid hampering our ability to deal with it."

"I'm an adult, Iruka. I can make my own decisions."

Iruka glared at him, "Kakashi, I am too. If I say it's over, it's over. I am going to go and get a few hours sleep before I leave on a mission."

Iruka bowed politely and then walked off, his attitude showing this conversation was over. Pakkun looked up at his master, "I see."

Kakashi looked down at Pakkun, "You do? I sure don't"

Pakkun shrugged, the gesture looking oddly human between the jacket he wore and the forehead protector around his neck, "I should have know you wouldn't be acting like a fool over someone common. His chakra control is amazing."

Kakashi sighed, "Yeah. We have work to do. Iruka is right; something is up with these Chuunin exams." He trudged off towards the village, determined to keep an eye out for whatever was going on. The walk back to the village seemed to take much longer than normal. He wasn't sure why Iruka calling things off seemed to be affecting him so much, it wasn't like him. He decided the best thing he could do was to get a listing of which teams were competing once it was released in the morning and to start investigating each of the jonin-sensei. At least he had something to keep his mind off of Iruka.

-------------------- Notes --------------------

_Ahhh Poor Iruka and Kakashi, can they ever get together? Guess not! Oh well maybe they will, but not right now. evil giggle _

_I know after all the NOT doing water references what do I do to let Iruka calm down, yep … play with water. Iruka has –very- good chakra control, but he doesn't have near the level of Kakashi. However, as has been pointed out with Sakura many times, if you control it well you can get the same results with less._


	14. Chapter 14

_Spoilers – This contains spoilers for the anime and manga. I am not sure of the exact chapters and episode numbers, but it is beyond what Cartoon network is showing. It is also beyond what is released in English manga by VIZ since I believe the events referenced are in volume 10 of the manga._

_If you want the FULL version of the first part of this chapter, it's a bazillion chapters of the manga and about half a bazillion anime episodes, so I skimmed it since covering it would make this story way too long and make me gouge my eyes out._

_Warnings – mucho language warnings on this chapter._

_This has been a broadcast of the scribbles alert system, we now return you to your regularly scheduled reading_

------------------------------------ 14 --------------------------------

Water Runs Red – Chapter 14

The days leading up to the first part of the chuunin exam passed quickly for Kakashi. He sulked around town and kept an eye on all the other teams. It seemed each day a new team came into town. This really was going to be one of the bigger Chuunin exams. He kept working his team harder so that they would be ready.

Ibiki himself lead the first exam, the last couple of times that Konoha had held the exams; he had had a subordinate run it. This time he ran it himself. Even with that added difficulty, Kakashi's team passed to the second exam, but so did Asuma and Kurenai's teams.

A few days into the second exam, he was suddenly summoned to the Hokage's office. He knew something was wrong as soon as he saw Anko there. The normally brash woman looked absolutely pale and was sitting behind the Hokage -- perfectly quiet.

The Hokage spoke up, "Kakashi-sensei. We have information about your student Uchiha Sasuke."

Kakashi quickly covered the distance between the door and the Hokage's desk. The only reason he could think of would be that the boy was dead.

"Orochimaru was here. He placed a dark seal on the boy."

Anko looked over at Kakashi, "We believe it is similar to the one that was placed on me."

Kakashi looked from one to the other, finally getting the entire story that they were under threat not to stop the exam. ANBU were in the forest of death, but to actually stop the test could have horrible results. Kakashi tried to argue that they had to let someone examine the seal now, but the Hokage insisted the test continue and interfering with Sasuke at this point could not be allowed. The earliest anyone was allowed to see the seal would be after the end of the second test once the Genin were given the information about when the third portion of the test was, or at such point as team 7 was eliminated from the second exam.

The only concession the Hokage would make was to give Kakashi a folder on what was known about the dark seal. When Kakashi went back to his apartment, he was truly regretting having entered his Genin in this test. Orochimaru was around, and had infiltrated the forest. His one student was marked with a dark seal and had a small chance of survival. If the boy made it, then the seal would need to be sealed and he would be in the hospital for who knows how long.

As much as it pained Kakashi to say it, Iruka was right. The kids had no business being in there. This was going bad. He was going to be damn lucky to have all three of his students emerge from that forest alive.

Three days later when he was standing in front of the successful candidates from the second exam, he was relieved. All three of his students had not only survived, but managed to complete the exam. Unfortunately, they had to go through preliminary matches and he couldn't do any more to help Sasuke than to make sure he didn't use his Sharingan. To use the blood-limit would cause the seal to take over his body. Kakashi had learned a lot about the seal in the past few days, luckily Anko's had been well studied by leaf experts. The part that surprised Kakashi was that those experts included Izumo and Iruka.

Thankfully, Sasuke went first and actually managed to defeat his opponent without doing anything to cause the cursed seal to spread over his body. Kakashi followed the best method the Hokage could come up with for reigning in the seal. The confrontation with Orochimaru was completely unexpected though.

Leaving Sasuke under ANBU guard at the hospital he spoke at length with the Hokage before getting authorization to get at the rest of the files pertaining to the dark seal.

The more he read on the thing, the more he knew he would have to track down Iruka and Izumo, and preferably Anko. He had done a lot with seals, but this one was different. It wasn't meant to keep anything in. It was meant to let something out. According to what was in the folders, it was a huge source of power, but it came with a steep price.

After getting Naruto sent off with Ebisu for training, he went in search of the chuunins and Anko. He had heard from Genma that the four (the three he was looking for plus Kotetsu) were off in one of the unused practice fields doing some training.

They weren't being quiet and it only took Kakashi a little bit to figure out exactly which of the fields and quietly walk up towards the, he wanted to see what was going on before he interrupted them.

Iruka slowly circled in the open field, his eyes remaining on his opponent.

Anko was circling as well, she had her devil may care smile on and her trench coat was blowing in the breeze. Kotetsu and Izumo were sitting off to one side.

Kotetsu yelled, "Put him in his place, Anko! Beat that sorry ass of his!"

Izumo shoved Kotetsu and screamed, "Come on Ruka! Show her she might be a jônin but she's still little Anko-chan!"

Iruka laughed as he made a come and get it gesture to Anko, "Ahh, come on little girl, I won't hurt you – much, unless you want me to." His voice was teasing.

"You are so going to pay for that Ruru-chan" Anko launched into a quick kicking combination, which Iruka blocked and jumped back from. "I'm going to whip you so hard you'll be in bed for a month."

Iruka flipped forward, dealing a series of punches and a kick before flipping over and away. He didn't hit anything more than her shoulder, and that was just barely. "Oh, sweetie, I thought we were fighting and here you are whispering sweet nothings."

"You know you like that!" She managed to get her hands on his and flip him, but he got out of her grip and landed gracefully on the ground, striking out with his own kick before she completely recovered.

"Oh, baby, you know it." He punched and kicked and backed up, "Course I know you like the audience."

Kotetsu and Izumo started laughing at the mention of audience. Kotetsu even catcalled.

She charged forward with a dizzying array of punches, Iruka dodged most, but a few connected. However, he was able to counter with two kicks of his own. "Maybe some of those new video surveillance devices, I got some strings I could pull with ANBU. Oh or maybe just some ropes."

She kicked at him, frowning as he managed to dodge, "Are you dancing or are you fighting?"

Iruka smirked, "Ohhh, I think I hit a nerve, boys."

"You cocksucker!"

"Damn right I am."

She charged him, "I will so get you, that hot ass of yours is going to be black and blue!"

He jumped out of the way, landing a kick on her back, "Oh promises, promises. Will you kiss it better?"

"Fuck! When did you get that flexible, I woulda never dumped you." She grinned wildly at him as she charged again.

"Dump me? You dumped me?" He kicked at her and she grabbed his leg causing him to go flying, he just barely managed to land without falling and she was on him the second his feet touched the ground. He dropped to his back, launching her into the air with his own feet and knocking the air out of her. "I so dumped you."

"In your dreams!" She launched towards him again, her feet and legs moving in a fast pattern of kicks and punches. She wasn't holding anything back, but she wasn't using chakra to increase the damage, this was obviously still for practice.

"Actually" He blocked and kicked, managing words between the punches, "It was in my bed."

"You're getting senile old man." She took a hard hit to her shoulder but managed to counter with a kick to his hip, "It was my bed."

She twisted as he kicked and tried to roundhouse his legs out from under him, but he jumped and managed to squeeze her butt as he fell to the ground. He hit the dirt with a loud thump and started laughing, "Well that must be why I was nice and invited you to join." He winked at her, "I win."

She rubbed her butt, "You didn't have to do that that hard. Anyways I turned down the invite -- he wasn't might type." She laughed as she reached down to help Iruka up.

It was then that Anko and Iruka saw their audience. Iruka turned an even more red shade than a normal blush and Anko even blushed as Kotetsu and Izumo almost fell over laughing. Kakashi didn't think he had even ever heard rumors of Anko blushing.

"Am I interrupting?" Kakashi asked as he stepped into the clearing.

Somehow, Iruka turned an even brighter shade of red, "Uh, no Kakashi-san, err sensei, err ... we were… sparring." Iruka had a look of someone who had just been caught in the act, made up an excuse but was going to stick with that excuse no matter what.

"I see, sparring."

"Is there something I can help you with?" Iruka shot a glare over at Kotetsu. Kakashi just barely caught sight of Kotetsu and Izumo making some odd gestures with their pinky fingers.

"I just came to tell you I sent Naruto off with Ebisu to do some training in preparation for the third exam."

Anko became more serious and walked over with Iruka to stand in front of Kakashi. She spoke softly, which was very unlike her normal demeanor, "You are going to supervise training the Uchiha yourself?"

Kakashi nodded, "I wanted to find the four of you since every request for information I've been making at the hospital seems to lead to one of you."

Kotetsu muttered, "Not me, I don't touch that seal stuff."

Izumo swatted him, "We'll help in anyway we can."

Kakashi paused to notice the change in attitude of the other four ninja; they went from completely screwing around to serious in the span of a few seconds. "I need to find out as much as I can about the seal."

Iruka nodded, "Of course. We should go to my place. I have additional records there, and we can teach you a few tricks."

Iruka lead everyone to his apartment. Kakashi noticing the changes in everyone's demeanor. Iruka definitely had taken on the attitude of the leader of the group. Izumo was steering Anko with a protective hand on her shoulder. Kotetsu was occasionally shooting a glance at Kakashi, as if to make sure he realized he really was an outsider to this group. Anko was the biggest surprise. She didn't say anything on the entire trip to Iruka's. The normally brash and loudmouthed woman was silent.

When they got to Iruka's, Izumo and Iruka walked towards the door to Iruka's bedroom, with everyone else following them. Izumo and Iruka picked up the dresser and moved it to the right. Kakashi hadn't gotten to the point of looking behind furniture when he was searching the apartment all those weeks ago, so he hadn't noticed the false panel the dresser was hiding.

There was another room behind there. Anko did a small jutsu and lit the oil lamps in the room while Iruka and Izumo started pulling down some scrolls from one of the shelves. The room was cramped with all five of them in there. The far wall held scrolls. Another wall was covered in scrolls that were hung up to dry. The third wall had more shelves with various containers on it. The interesting thing was that the floor was covered in a seal.

Izumo started to go over the contents of the scrolls, explaining how the dark seal bound itself to the recipient's chakra pathways and how most people couldn't adapt to it and ended up dying. He also went through what was known of how Orochimaru had changed the seals since Anko had gotten hers. Of course very little was known about that. He explained the theory behind the seals and why it seemed to work. He also went though why various ways of sealing it up don't work, namely that it was tied to the users own chakra system.

Kakashi read through everything as quickly as he could. "So my sealing it up won't work as well as I had hoped?"

Iruka took a deep breath, "It is the best that can be done. That is why the Hokage recommended it as a first course of action." He looked over at Anko and only continued once she nodded at him.

"The thing about the seal is that it can activate by itself. Not only when the bearer is out of chakra, but also when other triggers happen." Iruka's voice was calm as he explained.

"Triggers?" Kakashi was looking from Iruka to Anko, there was something here that he hadn't been told.

"Its hard to tell what will trigger it. Dreams are the most common it seems. Also, if Orochimaru is nearby, that can trigger it. Anything that reminds the person of when he received the seal can trigger it. It is tied very closely to the bearer's chakra so it can be triggered by disturbances to their chakra, but it can also be calmed by the bearer's chakra being calmed."

Kakashi nodded, "I assume you know how to calm it."

Iruka nodded, "Yeah." His voice was very serious and more than a little sad, "When Anko first came back…"

Anko cleared her throat, "Can he be trusted?"

Iruka looked over at Anko, "It's your decision."

She nodded, "I was only released from the hospital when Iruka begged the third, promising he would keep watch on me. I think Sasuke's seal is more stable than mine was. Mine tried to get out at least every night."

Iruka looked over at Kakashi, "We figured out a method of calming the seal and some meditation techniques that started to reduce the frequency. After a few months of that, the seal was at the point where Anko was able to take care of the seal herself after we … she moved out."

Anko nodded, "We can teach you and we can help Sasuke when he regains consciousness."

Iruka then showed him the move to calm the seal, instructing him to watch with his Sharingan. He could see the focusing of the chuunin's chakra in three of the fingers of his hand and a circular rotation of chakra moving in his palm. The chakra in the fingers then started to ripple, the same motion as the rain affect from when he was watching Iruka at the pond. Slowly Iruka brought his hand down on Anko's seal; the affect was almost instantaneous on her. Her chakra stabilized and her muscles relaxed. Iruka pulled his hand away before asking Kakashi, "Do you think you can do it?"

Kakashi nodded, "I'm not sure my control is as good as yours. I can do it though, I think."

Iruka looked at Anko, "You willing to let him try?"

She nodded and moved over to Kakashi. He concentrated on the chakra flow in his palm and gently placed it over her seal like had seen Iruka do. The affect on Anko was very different. The black under his palm started to move and her muscles tensed. Suddenly, Iruka had his hand there and was calming the mark.

"OK, that wasn't that bad." He patted Anko on the shoulder. "Ko? Why don't you take Anko and get her something to drink?"

Kotetsu grabbed Anko's shoulder and lead her out of the small room.

Kakashi frowned, "I'm sorry. I thought I had the move right."

Izumo nodded, "I think it was too strong."

Iruka nodded as well, "I agree. Try it on me; I don't have a mark to set off so I should be able to judge it better."

Four hours and a meal later, Kakashi had practiced on both Iruka and Izumo. Finally, it was time to try it on Anko. She was lying on the couch with Kotetsu curled up on the floor watching TV when Kakashi, Iruka, and Izumo walked out to the living room in search of her.

With Iruka there incase things went badly, Kakashi again practiced on Anko. This time it worked. After a few more times to make sure that Kakashi had it, Anko yawned, "I need to go home, get some rest before I end up sleeping here."

Iruka nodded, thanking her for her help and giving her a hug. She turned to Kotetsu and Izumo, "Can you guys walk me home?"

Kotetsu dragged his tired self off the floor and started to head for the door. Izumo paused to glance back at Iruka as he left, following the other two.

Kakashi sighed, "Thank you."

Iruka shrugged, "You're Sasuke's best hope right now."

"I'm sorry for putting them in danger."

"If Orochimaru wanted Sasuke, there is nothing anyone could have done to stop him. Not even you can be with the boy all the time. You were right to put them in the test, no matter how it turned out."

Kakashi walked towards Iruka, "You're amazing."

Iruka smiled, "If you say so." He took a step towards Kakashi. His voice was very soft as he said, "Can I get you some tea?"

Kakashi smiled, "Sure."

The chuunin walked past him, perhaps passing a bit closer than he had to in order to get to the kitchen. Iruka set a kettle on the stove and turned back to Kakashi, "Excuse me for a moment, I need to get changed."

Kakashi nodded, wondering idly why Iruka needed to get changed. As the kettle started to make noise, Iruka walked back out of his room wearing what Kakashi had begun to think of as 'mission clothes' which of course was extremely different than Kakashi's missions clothes.

Iruka threw his forehead protector onto an end table, grabbed some cash from the kitchen counter, and shoved it into the back pocket of his jeans. His hair was down and the dark green shirt he was wearing nicely showed off his muscles. As Iruka poured two cups of tea he smiled at Kakashi, "I have to go do a simple scouting mission tonight."

Kakashi frowned; he had been working on detailed chakra control with the chuunin for several hours after the man had done a match with Anko and after he had taught at the academy all day. "But aren't you exhausted?"

Iruka smiled, "Not the first time, not the last time." He handed Kakashi a cup of tea.

"Anko made a hasty retreat, is she OK?"

Iruka smiled, a slight blush passing over his cheeks. "She was trying to give us some alone time."

Kakashi looked over at Iruka, "She and you?"

"She used to be my girlfriend."

Kakashi nodded, it wasn't his place to ask.

Iruka smiled and looked down at his tea, "After overhearing the sparring I'm sure you know a little more about how the breakup went than you wanted to know."

Kakashi smiled, "Yeah. It was an impressive sparring match, especially the verbal portions." He paused for a second, "Winner is the first person to grab the other's butt?"

Iruka giggled and nodded, "Yeah, we came up with the rules back when we were all Genin. Pissed our jônin-sensei off like crazy. Well not Anko's, we were careful not to do it around _him_." Orochimaru's name didn't have to be spoken.

Kakashi nodded, "I can't image what I would do if I walked in on Sasuke and Naruto grabbing each other's butts. Course if it were Sasuke and Sakura … I don't think she'd put up a fight." When Kakashi looked over at Iruka, the other man was biting his lip. "What's wrong?"

"I'm an idiot."

"You are not."

"I'm scared."

Kakashi reached out to grab Iruka's hand, "Of what?"

"Orochimaru has shown up, something is going on with the exams, and I can't get this sense of dread to go away. Something really bad is going to happen, and all I can think of is how stupid I've been."

"Iruka…"

"No, let me finish. I said I shouldn't have asked you out because something bad was going to happen, but that is why I should ask you out. If one of us were to die, I would never know what it was like to kiss you."

"Iruka?" Kakashi looked down into the dark brown eyes looking up at him. Without wasting any more thoughts, he had his mask down and was kissing the younger man. His lips feeling Iruka's slightly chapped lips respond to him. Their teeth clicking together for a second before they found a comfortable position. He drunk in the taste of the tan man, savoring the warmth of his body pressed against his as they kissed.

The soft noises Iruka made were even more enticing when they were being made in Kakashi's arms. The little moans and pants Kakashi had previously only head over a speaker or at a distance seemed more captivating when he was holding Iruka tight to him. The younger man was practically trembling with the desire to kiss Kakashi harder.

Iruka had his arms wrapped around him, holding him tightly as he kissed Kakashi. Finally, after what seemed a blessed eternity, Iruka pulled back, his eyes still shut. "I need to leave."

Kakashi covered up his face again with the mask, "You can open your eyes. I'll see you after classes tomorrow?" He was surprised that the chuunin didn't try to sneak a look at his face.

Iruka smiled, "I'll look forward to it." With that the chuunin darted off, leaving Kakashi in the unfamiliar house to think about what just happened

-------------------- Notes -----------------------

_Ha-ha, I got them back together_

_Sorry for any awkwardness in the whole 'seal' thing. It would have been clearer from Iruka's POV, but… I don't know, I didn't want to switch POVs_

_I' m not sure how well this chapter worked, but I'm posting it before my eyes fall out from allergies._

_Thanks for the reviews, I love themPlease review, please email, show me you love me giggle_


	15. Chapter 15

_Disclaimer – The people doing the star village arc in the filler episodes have not been taken out back and kicked, thus Naruto is not min._

_Spoilers – This contains spoilers for the anime and manga. I am not sure of the exact chapters and episode numbers, but it is beyond what Cartoon network is showing. It is also beyond what is released in English manga by VIZ since I believe the events referenced are in volume 12 of the manga._

_This has been a broadcast of the scribbles alert system, we now return you to your regularly scheduled reading_

_Story status: I have everything plotted out for a while, which will probably take me another 2 or 3 chapters from here, more if more random sentences turn into long descriptions, Then again I could be way off on that since what I thought would be a few hundred words has turned into a few thousand. The spoiler warning on this will stretch into chapter 140 and beyond of the manga_

------------------------- 15 -------------------------

Water Runs Red – Chapter 15

Kakashi was almost late for his meeting with Iruka. He had just finished reporting into the Hokage about what happened when he visited the hospital room that Sasuke was in. After that massacre, he handpicked the ANBU standing guard over the boy now. Obviously, Kabuto had killed enough ANBU members, he had to make sure the ones guarding now could stand up to him.

When he got to the schoolyard, on autopilot since his mind was pre-occupied, he saw Iruka holding Konohamaru upside down by an ankle. He was yelling, "Udon, get out of that tree right now!" The teacher shook Konohamaru in the direction of the tree; much like someone else would shake a ruler or a stick.

Konohamaru for his part was screaming about how his grandfather was going to be mad.

Kakashi couldn't help himself from smiling as Iruka finally got the children lined up. He set Konohamaru down at the opposite end of the line as Udon and had every child pick up a pebble in front of them.

Iruka then took a deep breath, "OK, now what we are going to try doing is very hard, but since you were too rowdy to sit and listen to the lecture, we're going to try it a different way."

He picked up a rock and started to twirl it in his fingers, "Moegi, where is the easiest place for a ninja to gather chakra?"

The girl looked up, "In the hand?"

Iruka nodded, "And does anyone know the second easiest place?"

A little boy with red tattoos on his face raised his hand and when called on said, "In the feet."

"Very good." He turned his hand upside down to show the rock was still in place, stuck to his hand. "This is a simple trick, and some of you will be able to master this now, others it will take a lot of practice. Your homework is to try to get the rock to stay on your hand like this by using chakra. I will give you a hint though. Different rocks are easier depending on shape and substance, so try your best."

He bit his lip for a second before calling on Konohamaru who was waving his hand frantically, "Yes Konohamaru?"

"Why are we learning silly tricks? We need to learn real skills!"

Iruka smiled, "This silly trick might save your life sometime." He dropped a Kunai onto the ground and picked it up by holding it to the bottom of his foot with chakra, and then he let it go flying with a quick motion of his leg, smiling as it embedded itself into one of the practice dummies. "See what I mean?"

The class for the most part was watching Iruka with wide eyes, even Konohamaru managed to nod.

"Good, now practice hard, dismissed." Suddenly a horde of small children were running to get their backpacks and things and taking off to do whatever children do on beautiful early summer days.

Iruka smiled over towards Kakashi as the children ran past. "I just need to put a few things away." He walked over to the tree and grabbed the Kunai.

"When did chakra control like that get on the curriculum?"

Iruka smiled, "When I decided it should be." He led the way into the classroom and started to shove things into his desk. "As long as I keep turning out students that pass onto Genin teams, they don't pay too much attention. A nice graduation test for the Hokage, and whatever else I cover is fine as long as the jônin–sensei don't bitch too much."

"I see."

"Anyways, Good Chakra control will only help them. Never have had anyone come to me and complain my students can control their chakra too well." He smiled at Kakashi, "Unless you are here to destroy that record?"

Kakashi shook his head and sighed. "I have bad news."

Iruka suddenly turned serious, "What happened?"

Kakashi reached back to scratch the back of his neck, "Kabuto is a traitor."

Iruka's eye's widened, but the man didn't show as much surprise as Kakashi had been expecting.

"He killed the guards watching Sasuke." Iruka's only reaction was to bite his lower lip, obviously waiting for Kakashi continued. "I got there before he could do whatever he intended to do to Sasuke, and I stationed hand picked ANBU at the hospital. The Hokage wants me to take Sasuke from the village for a bit once he wakes up."

Iruka nodded, "I see." Iruka finished making sure everything was put away and asked, "Are you hungry? It's still early for dinner."

"Are you?"

"Not really." Iruka smiled, "Would you like to walk?"

Kakashi nodded and accompanied Iruka away from the academy. They walked through the streets of Konoha. Kakashi was surprised at the number of people who waved or said hi to Iruka as they walked. "I learned something last night."

Kakashi turned towards Iruka, "Are you allowed to tell me."

Iruka shook his head, "Not exactly. I can ask you to please be careful though. Something is up, but we don't know what yet. Izumo, Kotetsu and I have been out every night for the past week, but we can't find anything. Ibiki is getting so desperate he is sending us each out alone to cover more ground."

"You're going on missions alone?" Kakashi couldn't keep the concern from his voice.

"I'm an adult; I've been on missions alone before. Besides, this is just scouting, get information and get out."

"If you can't find anything, how do you know something is up?"

Iruka smiled, "Because we can't find anything. We can normally turn up a few minor treaty violations, a few hidden troop movements, and the standard things. We do it to other countries, they do it to us. Shinobi teams taking shortcuts though other countries, you know, normal stuff." Iruka paused long enough to let his leg get attacked by a small child who was determined to hug the teacher's thigh. With practiced ease, the chuunin unclasped small fingers and with a pat on the head and a smile sent a young girl scampering back to her parents.

Kakashi watched as the young girl waved at Iruka and attached herself to her father's leg before being led off.

"She's a new student. I have the new ones for one day of the week."

Kakashi nodded, "You are amazing with the students." He was quiet for a few minutes, walking in silence with the younger man before speaking, "So we can assume that there is something organized going on. There is no other reason for the standard treaty disruptions to stop. Also, it must be major if they are managing to hide all traces."

Iruka nodded, "Exactly. Everyone seems to be re-distributing troops at their borders into new configurations. If Ibiki knows what is going on, he sure isn't telling me, and I don't know what they're telling the jônin… I just wanted you to know some of what I know so you can keep on guard."

They were walking out of the village proper and into the surrounding area where the training fields were, "I appreciate it. I haven't been able to discover anything yet. So many of the people here for the chuunin test seem suspicious that it's hard to tell who is more suspicious."

Iruka nodded, "I know."

"This is where you were yesterday."

Iruka looked around the training field, "So it is. I must not have been paying attention to where we were going."

"You were sparring with a jônin yesterday."

"So I was."

"But yet you say you can't fight on that level?"

Iruka smiled and shook his head, "You know as well as I do that Anko could kick my butt if we started using jutsu. Unless I got close enough to tickle her, I'd be dead."

"Tickle?"

He smiled, "I have a bit more experience in that area than most of her enemies would."

"I want to see what you can do." Kakashi smiled, "Fighting not tickling."

"So an all out fight? Weapons and jutsu and all?"

Kakashi nodded, "But let's put a timer on it."

"So no grabbing your butt?"

Kakashi shook his head, laughing, "Not in order to win the match at least."

"OK but no Sharingan."

Kakashi agreed and he set the timer he carried for ten minutes. They quickly took their spots in the clearing, Iruka kicking a bit at the leaf litter at his feet before glancing around at the leaves on the trees.

"OK, I'm at the disadvantage so I call go." He smiled and took another step back, "One, two, three, go!"

Iruka went though the seals for a low level fire jutsu as he jumped back from a barrage of shuriken sent by Kakashi.

Kakashi was faster, and easily dodged the fire. He wanted to bring this to hand-to-hand combat, so he rushed forward, throwing a punch followed by a kick at Iruka. The kick landed, but Iruka disappeared in a puff of smoke revealing a log.

Suddenly Kakashi found himself surrounded in smoke, the smoke from where the fire jutsu had caught the leaves and grass on the ground on fire was circling around him in a tight vortex. He was looking around trying to sense an attack, but he couldn't find Iruka's chakra. He deflected three kunai that were coming at him easily and launched returning shuriken to where the blades had originated. With his Sharingan, he could get through this easily, but without it, he was visually blind. He listened careful and kept his other senses open. Even with Iruka's chakra control, he would let something slip at some point.

Kakashi deflected shuriken and kunai returning each weapons barrage with a return grouping of his own. He knew there was a pond not far from here, so he quickly did the seals for a water jutsu. He created a wave that took out the smoke surrounding him and put out the small fire. It also through luck nailed Iruka and caused him to be knocked to the ground. Before Kakashi could take advantage, the chuunin was back up on his feet.

"Nice move, Iruka, but not enough."

Suddenly Iruka's chakra went wild. It flickered and jumped and collapsed in upon itself. The tan man collapsed to the ground, face first into the leaf litter on the ground.

Kakashi quickly ran towards him, he hadn't hit him that hard, maybe the chuunin had pushed himself too hard.

Kakashi rolled the chuunin over, suddenly the man's mouth opened in a gasp. Iruka's eyes looked around, "How long was I out?" He didn't sound surprised that he had passed out.

"Just a few seconds, what the hell happened?"

"I'm really tired and I think I've been using too many stimulants to stay up and I think maybe I'm babbling." Iruka smiled up at Kakashi, "You're supposed to say 'you look cute when you babble.'"

"Oh really?"

Iruka nodded, "Yeah."

"Are you all right? And why are you using stimulants instead of having someone sub for you so you can sleep?"

"I … Umm …" Iruka looked up at the worried jônin, "I'm sorry."

"I am taking you home and making you rest." Kakashi stood up and pulled Iruka up after him.

Iruka didn't argue, instead he followed Kakashi, just looking down at the hand that Kakashi hadn't dropped yet. He smiled as Kakashi lead him back to the village, holding his hand.

After a few minutes Kakashi realized he was still holding Iruka's hand and let go, instead dropping back to be walking next to the chuunin. "That was a nice move you pulled."

"Hmmm?"

"Swirling the smoke around me. With how you can cloak yourself, it did put me at a disadvantage."

"That's only because you weren't using the Sharingan. It also can't work against a Huugya. An Inuzuka would just rely on their nose and an Aberame could send their bugs out past the smoke."

"Iruka, that doesn't make it not a nice move. Does it take a lot of chakra?" Kakashi was getting annoyed with Iruka constantly underestimating his ability.

"No, hardly any. It's like tree climbing. I used it all up doing the fire in order to get something I could swirl." Iruka smiled, "I guess it's no surprise that someone with a name like mine would be bad at fire jutsu?"

Kakashi shook his head, "No seriously, with a name like Umino? So I take it you can do the same thing with water?"

Iruka nodded as Kakashi unlocked an apartment door, "Water, smoke, leaves -- it looks incredible when it's done with flower petals."

"Flower petals?" Kakashi kicked off his sandals and placed them next to the door.

"Yeah, I actually used that one in a mission once." Iruka kicked off his sandals and placed them next to Kakashi's as he entered the other man's apartment.

"Would you like some tea? I have to hear this story."

Iruka nodded, "Yes please." He sat down on the couch, letting his eyes drift half shut, "I was on a mission with unfamiar people once when I was a genin for some extra training. My team was assigned a bodyguard mission. The daughter of a rich merchant, she was getting married and we had to guard her until the marriage ceremony since some competitor wanted to prevent the marriage since it would be a merger or some such. Anyways, the kunoichi on my team and her spent their time in this garden with these huge cherry trees. The other two of us alternated keeping guard. Well, the attack came on my shift. My stamina was much worse then."

"I managed to make some water clones, thankfully there was a koi pond, and we were doing a good job of holding off the attackers and took most of them out. The kunoichi on my team was very good with weapons. Well, we had most of the thugs taken care of when it turned out they had hired an actual ninja to off the girl. This guy was way above our level, and our sensei and other team member were still a few minutes away."

"I knew we couldn't take him, so I had her take over the thugs, and I set myself to delaying the enemy shinobi. I threw an explosive tag on a kunai past him; the idiot thought I was actually aiming for him. It exploded and shook up all the trees and I was able to confuse him with the petals and ricocheting kunai and shuriken off of the stonewalls. He got completely turned around and we had actually managed a few glancing wounds when our sensei got there and took him out."

He laughed as Kakashi handed him a cup of tea, "The girl was so impressed with the move that she wanted to know if I could do it at her wedding."

Kakashi shook his head, "Who would have known you had a second career if you wanted it in performance art." He sat down next to Iruka and looked over at him, "So … after last night am I allowed to ask you on a date?"

Iruka blushed lightly, "I guess so, but drinks probably aren't a good idea with how tired I am."

"Dinner and a movie without leaving the living room?" Kakashi gestured at a stack of DVDs sitting on top of the TV.

"Cooking or delivery?"

"Delivery, I'm not half the cook Kotetsu evidently is." Kakashi got up, walked over to the fridge, and pulled half a dozen menus off of it. "Thai? Chinese? Sushi?" He handed the menus over to Iruka.

Iruka smiled as he flipped through the menus, "If I wanted to be an expensive date I'd go for the sushi, but how about Chinese."

Suddenly a blanket on the floor started to move, "If you guys are ordering…."

Iruka's hand was gripping a kunai as soon as the blanket moved.

Kakashi sighed, "What? Any mention of food and you wake up. If I have something for you to do through you can feign sleeping through a speech by Gai."

A pug head peaked out from under the blanket. "Sorry. Geez, I didn't know you were bringing your koibitto home." Pakkun waddled over to Iruka, "Thank you for the biscuits, by the way, they were much better than anything that cheapskate buys me."

Iruka just laughed and put away his kunai, "You're welcome. Mine name is Iruka, pleased to meet you."

"Pakkun, pleasure is mine. So nice to see my master acting like a normal person finally."

Kakashi grumbled and walked over to a phone to place an order.

Iruka snickered, "So I take it, you were not the one who decided to watch my apartment?"

Pakkun laughed, "Well if I had known about the biscuits, I might have. I didn't come up with the tracking you idea."

Iruka nodded, "Ahh, so your nose is why I didn't sense anyone following me."

Kakashi called out "Pakkun!" in a warning voice.

Pakkun's only answer was, "I want pork or I spill everything!"

Kakashi came back into the living room, "They said thirty minutes. Pakkun, I ordered you pork, if you make yourself scarce there are dumplings in it for you."

Iruka giggled, "I think someone is looking for some privacy? Pretty presumptuous on a first date, especially a cheep first date."

Pakkun rolled onto his back, "I'm not doing anything until I get my pork."

Iruka yawned and stretched, most likely to hid a laugh. He pulled his vest off and set it to the side before Kakashi jumped up and grabbed it, "Here let me hang this up."

Iruka smiled as he pulled of his forehead protector, setting that down along with the ponytail holder. When Kakashi went off to hang up Iruka's vest and take his own off, Iruka leaned over to Pakkun, "Koibitto?"

The pug did a very human like shrug, "Look at how he's acting."

Iruka sat back on the couch and smiled.

Soon they had a movie on, and much to Kakashi's disappointment, he was outvoted by Iruka and Pakkun who evidently wanted to watch something romantic instead of an action movie so all of Kakashi's DVDs were left where they were and something Kakashi had never seen was ordered on Pay Per view.

Kakashi knew better than to bitch about his cable bill or it would lead to Pakkun complaining about Kakashi being a cheapskate again. Soon the food arrived and they ate while watching the movie, everyone sitting on a blanket on the floor. Kakashi cleaned up and put the leftovers in the fridge since the other two were engrossed in the film. Kakashi was having more fun watching Iruka watch the movie. Finally, when the star-crossed lovers ended up in each other's arms sharing a passionate kiss as the credits rolled, Iruka leaned into Kakashi, using his shoulder to brush away a tear.

Iruka grabbed the remote and flicked the TV to some crime drama on one of the stations. He leaned into Kakashi to whisper, "I think your dog is asleep."

Kakashi nodded, he didn't rally care if Pakkun was asleep or not, all he was caring about was that Iruka's hand was gripping his shirt.

Iruka leaned into Kakashi, his mouth almost brushing the mask over the older man's lips. "Would you be more comfortable in the dark?"

Kakashi didn't bother answering; he just pulled down his mask, letting the other man see his face in the dim light of the TV. He leaned into Iruka to kiss him.

Iruka's arms snaked around his head, his fingers ending up entwining in silver hair as he returned the kiss. Iruka was not a quiet kisser, he made little moans and moist sounds and in the struggle for who was kissing whom, their teeth kept on clinking against each other.

Kakashi held Iruka close as he kissed him, marveling at how relaxed the other man was. He was pretty sure that Iruka was half-asleep, but also he felt the man trusted him to be this relaxed. He ran his fingers through Iruka's brown hair, letting the strands slip between his fingers.

Iruka moved his lips, tracing a moist trail from Kakashi's mouth to his exposed ear, softly sucking on the earlobe.

Kakashi snuck his hands across Iruka's waist, slipping them up under his shirt. The skin under the shirt was amazingly warm and soft. Before Kakashi could investigate any more of Iruka's body there was a loud knock on his door.

Both men started and sat up straight and Pakkun snorted, "Huh?"

Kakashi stood up and started to walk towards the door fastening his mask as he walked when suddenly Iruka let out a grunt of pain as he gripped his shoulder, "Fuck, I have to go."

Kakashi opened the door to reveal Asuma, "Hey, we have to go; they called a meeting of all the jônin. What the hell is **_he_** doing here?" Asuma tried to push Kakashi aside, but only managed to point at Iruka on the blanket in front of the couch in the mostly dark room.

Iruka was tying his hair back up in its normal ponytail and strapping on his forehead protector as Kakashi growled out, "Normal people call it a date, Asuma."

Iruka grabbed his vest from the hook on the wall and slipped it on. "Sorry for having to run again." He grabbed Kakashi and quickly kissed him over the mask. He bowed to Asuma, "Sarutobi-san" He then darted past the large Jônin and took off towards the center of town.

_-------------- Notes --------------------_

_I had four things I wanted to get done in this chapter. What did I get done? Only the first of them. I swear I can't let Iruka 'on screen' the boy is an attention slut! I mean 'go and sit on the couch can turn into half a page with that boy._

_PS who let Pakkun in this fic so much? Anyone?_


	16. Chapter 16

_Disclaimer – The people doing the star village arc in the filler episodes have not been taken out back and kicked, thus Naruto is not mine_

_Spoilers – This contains spoilers for the anime and manga. I am not sure of the exact chapters and episode numbers, but it is well beyond what Cartoon network is showing. It is also beyond what is released in English manga by VIZ since I believe the events referenced are in volume 14 f the manga._

_This has been a broadcast of the scribbles alert system, we now return you to your regularly scheduled reading_

------------------------- 16-------------------------

Water Runs Red – Chapter 16

Kakashi hurried with Asuma to the meeting place. They encountered several other jônin on their way there and soon were assembled into a meeting room. It was then that they found out that Gekko Hayate had been killed. Kakashi kept on expecting Iruka to show up, but it never happened. Eventually Ibiki showed up and answered some questions. Kakashi left the meeting, walking alone. He took his time as he went to his apartment, keeping an eye on the village. He didn't know where Iruka had gone to, he had to assume it was someone related to this, but he didn't want to question Ibiki at the meeting.

The village seemed quiet except for additional ANBU patrols. Nothing most of the villagers would notice. Kakashi folded up the blanket they had been sitting on and cleaned up a few glasses before grabbing a shower and going to bed.

After a few hours, Kakashi was suddenly awake. He didn't move or change his breathing or anything, he sensed someone near him. Mentally he remembered where all of his weapons were and within a split second was ready to attack if the presence turned out to be dangerous.

There was a knocking on his window. Since enemies don't normally knock on your window, Kakashi opened his eyes to see a very tired looking Iruka on his windowsill. He opened the window and helped the other man in, "Are you all right?"

Iruka shook his head as Kakashi closed the window. "No … I need to sleep."

Kakashi nodded and started to help Iruka out of his chuunin vest. "Do you need a shower?"

Iruka nodded and Kakashi grabbed a pair of loose shorts and a towel and helped him towards the bathroom. He stood there for a moment, not bothering to realize he was only wearing a pair of boxers. He walked back into his bedroom and grabbed his forehead protector and placed it over his Sharingan eye, he didn't bother with the mask. A few minutes later, the shower shut off and Iruka walked back into the bedroom. He was wearing the shorts and looked like a half-drowned version of death.

He muttered as he walked up to Kakashi, "Too tired to think." He let Kakashi guide him to the bed, "Ibiki said no school tomorrow."

Kakashi shhhed him as he pulled him down into bed next to him, "It's all right, you need some sleep."

Before the chuunin was even completely in the bed, his chakra calmed and as his head hit the pillow his breathing settled. Kakashi smiled to himself as he realized he was again in bed with Iruka, unfortunately every time that happened it seemed that the other man was sleeping.

Kakashi spent some time looking at Iruka. He had never been that good at sleeping around other people. Luckily, most of his missions were either solo or short. It took a while before he could sleep around his three Genin, and that was still a very shallow sleep. For some reason, Iruka didn't seem to bother him as much. The man was so peaceful when he was asleep. Kakashi removed his forehead protector and looked at Iruka, really looked at him. The man had one of the calmest chakra system's Kakashi had ever seen. Definitely not the most powerful, not even close to it, but calm.

Kakashi closed his eyes and relaxed, letting the warmth of the man beside him gradually calm him. The affect of Iruka's chakra was also felt as Kakashi felt himself drifting off to sleep again. A small part of Kakashi's brain noted that it would be nice to fall asleep like this every night. He smiled as he drifted off to sleep, smirking slightly at the portion of his mind that inserted the thought of 'but with fewer clothes.

The next morning and the sun was shining through the window. Kakashi woke up slowly, his arms wrapped tightly around Iruka. He didn't get out of bed right away. He didn't have anything that needed to be done. Sakura had some time off since both her team mates were going to be in the final chuunin exam. Sasuke was unconscious. Naruto was off training with Jiriaya. Iruka had the day off from teaching, so there was no reason Kakashi couldn't lay in bed and appreciate the warm body in his arms. He was sure Obito would understand him being late.

For once, Kakashi didn't have the urge to read his book. He just remained in bed, watching Iruka sleep. Kakashi had seen many wounds in his life. He had seen many scars. The one across Iruka's nose was probably the first one he would call cute though. How something that marred that man's tanned skin could be cute was a puzzle.

It looked really old. Older than the scar on Kakashi's face, older than the fox attack and older than any of the Genin on his team.

From the way it curved over Iruka's nose, it almost certainly happened when he was very young. A straight cut when the man still had a child's nose and the cartilage now pushing the upper portion into an arc would not have been there yet. It was certainly a perfectly straight cut at one point. Kakashi didn't know if it was something Iruka didn't talk about, or if he could ask the other man. He did know that staring at the other man's face was a much better way to spend the morning than getting out of bed.

After a while, Kakashi forced himself to get out of bed, it was almost noon. Iruka stirred when he left the bed but quickly settled back to sleep in the warm spot Kakashi left. Kakashi grabbed a shower, folded the chuunin's clothes in a neat pile and walked out to the living room.

He was microwaving the remains of his dinner when there was a knock on the door. Wearing just his standard pants and his mask and forehead protector he walked over to the door, the chakra was familiar so he opened it.

Genma was on the other side, "Hey."

Kakashi stepped back from the door as the microwave beeped. "What's up?"

Genma followed Kakashi into the kitchen are as the silver haired man pulled the remains of dinner from the microwave and started to poke it with chopsticks. He had overcooked it.

Genma leaned against the wall, "Your brat woke up." Kakashi put down the food before Genma continued, "They traqued him up but it should wear off in about four hours."

Kakashi picked up his food again. "Want something to drink?" Suddenly both men turned and looked towards the bedroom door as there was a loud thump heard from the other side followed by some sort of muttered curse.

Genma just raised an eyebrow and moved his senbon to the other side of his mouth. "I have one more person I need to track down before then, like I'm some fucking errand boy or something."

Both men turned to look at the bedroom door as it slid open and Iruka stumbled out, looking more than a little confused in his borrowed shorts and nothing else. He looked towards Genma and Kakashi, "Umm, Kakashi? I can't find my clothes."

Genma bit down on the senbon trying not to laugh as his face slowly turned red, and his breathing became irregular.

Kakashi gestured towards the bathroom, "They're in the bathroom."

Iruka nodded and walked over to the fridge, "Hey Genma."

Genma for his part managed to stop laughing, "I was looking for you. Obviously not in the right places."

Iruka grabbed his container of leftover Chinese and looked over at Genma, "Why were you looking for me?" Iruka started poking at his leftovers, not bothering to microwave them.

"Sasuke woke up. They sedated him while you guys get ready, so he should be up in about four hours."

Iruka nodded, "Did you already find Izumo?"

Genma snorted, "Course I did, I knew whose bed _he_ was sleeping in."

Iruka rolled his eyes, "Wow, and to think with those amazing powers of observation you don't work full time for Ibiki."

"Bite me." Genma was obviously joking.

"Only if you beg." Iruka shook his head, "I'm getting dressed and eating and then I'll go. I didn't get out of there until… What time did I get here at?" He turned to Kakashi.

"Ummm," Kakashi looked over at Genma then Back to Iruka, "I think around three AM? I had been asleep for a while."

Genma winced and gave Iruka a sympathetic look, "Oh, sorry. I figured Ibiki let you go after the meeting everyone was at." As Iruka disappeared into the bathroom he continued, "I mean seriously, you've been out almost every night."

Iruka yelled from the bathroom, obviously multi tasking the getting dressed with the eating of the cold Chinese, "Tell me about it, I'm exhausted."

"Must be hell on the social life … or maybe not." Genma smirked and looked over at Kakashi.

Kakashi simply raised an eyebrow while cleaning up the kitchen, "I thought you said you had people to find?"

Genma smiled, "Person, and you were hiding him in your bedroom apparently."

Iruka walked out of the bathroom, fully clothed and with an empty container of Chinese. "Hey hey, be nice Genma."

Kakashi smirked, "Yeah Genma, be nice."

Genma rolled his eyes and laughed, "Hey, I am being nice. If I were mean I'd track down Gai and tell him."

Kakashi paled and Iruka looked at Genma, "Do it and find that Senbon someplace … interesting."

"Hey, be nice now. You shouldn't piss off the person who does all your piercing. Or... most?" He tried to keep a straight face at his pun and was whacked on the shoulder for his efforts by Iruka.

"Behave." Iruka managed to say it in one of his best teacher voices. "I should get to the hospital and help Izumo set up everything for when Sasuke wakes up."

Kakashi nodded, "Do I need to be there before he wakes up? I need to gather up some stuff to take with when I take him out of the village."

Iruka smiled, "Nope, just be there in about four hours. We'll get the seal a little more stable, then you should be good with what we taught you." Iruka walked over to Kakashi and wrapped his arms around the taller man's waist. He winked so that only Kakashi could see it and then purred, "Thank you, for last night. That was exactly what I needed." He was pressed up against Kakashi as he said it.

Kakashi was almost so distracted by Iruka, and Iruka's body, and Iruka's lips so close to his mask that he almost missed the surprised look on Genma's face. His attention was abruptly jerked back to Iruka as the man went into completely sexy mode and nearly grabbed Kakashi's collarbone in his lips, quickly sucking on it and ending with a little bite.

Iruka then stepped back and giggled as he admired his handiwork. "See you in four hours." He walked past a surprised Genma to leave the apartment, a slight swagger to his stride.

Genma cleared his throat as Iruka left, "Hope they don't call you up for any ANBU stuff, don't think that uniform will cover that." He smirked at Kakashi. "Damn, Kakashi. How did you keep** that** out of the mission room gossip?"

"It'll be in the gossip soon enough, Asuma was the one who got me for the meeting last night. Stopped by here mid-date."

"Yeah, he'll tell Kurenai and then she'll—"

Kakashi cut him off, "Hunt me down and kill me."

Genma quirked an eyebrow, "What's going on that I don't know?"

Kakashi gestured towards a chair, "Sometimes I forget Asuma and Kurenai didn't fight in the war."

Genma nodded, "If it hadn't ended when it did they would have been out there. They just missed it."

"Yeah. I guess the war caused us to be able to judge who to trust and who we could rely on."

Genma just nodded.

"Kurenai has something against Iruka and he won't tell me the details. Whatever it is, it is making her pissed that I have an interest in Iruka and Asuma is of course on her side so … it's a little dicey."

Genma shook his head, "Iruka can be trusted. The man has saved my life nearly as many times as I've saved his."

Kakashi nodded.

"Course if you didn't trust him I doubt he'd be waking up in your apartment."

Kakashi shook his head, "It wasn't how it looked."

"Really"?"

"He showed up at 3Am exhausted, I barely got him in bed before he was sound asleep."

"But you said you were interrupted mid-date …"

"Yeah, but that was dinner and a DVD."

Genma smiled, "Yeah, well I know Iruka pretty well. If this is where he came at 3AM when he was that tired, that is saying something." He stood up, "I better let you get dressed. If I don't get back to the mission desk, the guys I left in charge might screw up something. I'll try and keep the gossip about you guys truthful at least when it hits."

Kakashi nodded, "Thanks."

Kakashi used the rest of his four hours to get everything ready to go off training with Sasuke. He arrived at the hospital with his mission pack. He was directed down into the basement of the hospital into one of the windowless rooms carved from the rock. When he arrived there were several medical-nins writing down symbols while Izumo was consulting a scroll then directing the medic-nins.

Izumo looked up when Kakashi entered, "They'll be down in maybe ten minutes. We're almost ready. This should only take a few minutes; the seals are just really complicated."

Kakashi nodded and looked around at the room. Izumo wasn't lying, this was exceptionally complicated and definitely not any sort of a healing set up so the medic nins needed a lot of guidance to get it right.

Finally, Sasuke was brought down and Iruka was with him. The boy was placed into the center of the room and three of the medic-nins took up positions in the corners of the room, leaving one corner empty. Another medic injected something into Sasuke's arm as Izumo nodded he was ready and Iruka took the spot in the remaining corner.

Kakashi stayed back with the rest of the medic nins and watched as the boy woke up. Izumo was whispering to him and the boy calmed. Then Izumo placed his hands over the seal and started to do something. Kakashi wasn't sure what it was, but it seemed similar to a high power medical spells where the chakra from the people at the corners of the room was guided towards the one in the center causing them to have much more chakra. However, this time Kakashi didn't sense a large influx of chakra, just a gradual push of extremely flat chakra. The three medic nins had high levels of chakra control, as would be expected from people in their profession, but seeing it transferred along the seal emphasized how much smoother Iruka's was.

True to his word, it wasn't even ten minutes before Izumo ended things and stood up. "Sasuke, thank you, that went very well. I'll leave you in Kakashi-sensei's hands now."

The boy sat up and looked over at Kakashi before obediently following his sensei from the room. As Kakashi left the room, he turned back for a second to give Iruka a quick wave before putting an arm on Sasuke's shoulder and leading him from the room.

The next weeks passed quickly, yet slowly for Kakashi. Sasuke was getting stronger. He kept Kakashi on his feet making sure the boy would be ready for the final stage of the chuunin exam. The boy's control of the seal was increasing as well. He was learning to control his chakra better and hardly needed Kakashi to settle the seal. It did seem more stable than the one that had been placed on Anko.

He was careful to not tax Sasuke too much; the boy had to learn to increase his stamina. He wished he could push Sasuke harder, but the boy needed stamina. If he over did it and the seal fully broke out, the consequences could be dire. As much as Kakashi wanted to go back to the village, even for a day, he knew he couldn't

He hoped it would be enough. If he could get Sasuke through this exam, then they could spend the time afterwards helping him better control it. The stress of the upcoming test was getting to Sasuke, although the boy would never admit it. As the day approached, the seal came closer and closer to breaking through whenever Sasuke wasn't concentrating on it. The knowledge on how to calm the seal was indispensable. The day of the match it nearly broke through, and it took so long to help Sasuke get it back under control to the point where Kakashi was willing to let him compete in the exam that he knew they'd be late.

He hoped Iruka would be at the stadium when they got there, but he wasn't. He used a teleportation jutsu and even fancied it up a bit with Iruka's chakra spiral trick. He had intentionally teleported some of the leaves around them into the arena so he'd be able to spin them in a lazy spiral instead of just being surrounded by chakra smoke. He was after all the infamous copycat nin, he had to put on a show occasionally.

Then all hell broke loose. They were under attack. He was deep in battle and had to send two of his students off after his other student. He hoped Sasuke didn't do anything stupid. Things only got worse from there. The battle became a haze as killed his enemies. He was suddenly glad Iruka wasn't here, he just hoped wherever he was, that he was safe.

When the smoke cleared and the damage was discovered, the third was dead and their forces were decimated. Sand and Sound had attacked together. Two villages against their one, but leaf was strong enough to survive. Naruto and Sakura managed to bring back Sasuke; all three of his students were in the hospital that night, the very crowded hospital. Kakashi took guard duty, it had been a long time since he had guarded the walls, but these were not normal times. He knew every able-bodied ninja was needed right now to work themselves as hard as they could. The village was without a leader. The walls had been breeched. He didn't even want to think about the lives that were lost.

He grabbed a few hours sleep in a room in the administrative building, he wasn't the only jonin to not want to be too far away just incase he was needed. He didn't see Iruka; he was pretty sure every other ninja had walked through the doors of this building at some point. He kept looking at the casualty reports, hoping not to see his name.

He was going crazy not knowing. He left, promising he'd be back in an hour. He ran across the shattered rooftops to get to the chuunin's apartment. When he got there, it was empty. He didn't bother hiding his entrance. There was a bloody uniform thrown in the corner of the bathroom. Kakashi checked it. It didn't seem like serious injuries. It looked for all the world like Iruka had come home to change and left again. Kakashi let himself relax a little, that meant the man had survived the battle.

His next stop was the Academy. Half of it was destroyed; the other half was set up as a shelter. It was getting late. The sun had already set. He walked in; there were a lot of civilians and children here. The ones who obviously had no place else to go. He walked through the people looking for Iruka. He saw Sakura in a corner with several small children. He walked over to her and saw she was reading them a story. When she finished and looked up at him, Kakashi couldn't help smiling. He helped her shoo the children off to bed.

She turned to him, "The doctor ordered me to take it easy." She sounded sad.

"You were badly injured." He looked around, noticing the large amount of children compared to adults, "Why are there so many children?"

She frowned, "A lot of buildings collapsed. Some of them have their parents in the hospital …" She didn't have to say why the rest of them were there.

He put a hand on her shoulder, squeezing lightly. "You need to get some rest."

She nodded and took a deep breath, "I should get home, my mother is probably worried."

Before she left, he asked, "Is Iruka-sensei around?"

She nodded and gestured to a door, "He's back there."

Kakashi walked to the back room and pushed it open; it wasn't completely closed in the first place. He saw a very tired looking Iruka sitting with a pile of papers. The room was very dim and there was a baby in Iruka's arms. Somehow, the man was managing to write on papers and hold a sleeping infant.

Kakashi kept his voice very quiet, "Iruka?"

He looked up at Kakashi and smiled, "Hey." The child in his arms made a slight noise and Iruka moved the child to his shoulder, patting the small back as he stood up and walked over to Kakashi. "I didn't expect to see you here."

"I was worried about you."

"I'm not a fighter. I stayed with the students and evacuees, just in case" He knelt down and pulled out a bottle with water in it and handed a packet to Kakashi, "Can you open that and dump it in?"

Kakashi nodded and added the white powder in the packet to the water. Just watching as Iruka put a nipple on top of the bottle and shook it to mix the powder and water.

"We were lucky." Iruka moved the infant in his arms to be cradeled in the crook of his arm and placed the bottle to the hungry child's lips.

"Lucky?"

Iruka nodded, "Civilian casualties were low. We got most everyone out in time. Almost everyone should be back with family members by tomorrow." He looked down at the little bundle in his arms, "Her mother was ANBU, positioned at the southern wall."

Kakashi looked down at the baby, cradled so expertly in Iruka's arms, "Her father?"

"Critical condition but they think he'll make it. I said I'd watch her until they can figure out what to do with her tomorrow."

He nodded and took the bottle as Iruka handed it to him so he could move the child back to his shoulder. "You're very good at that." He gestured towards Iruka rubbing the infants back.

"Spent a few years in the orphanage." He didn't need to mention that he was by no means the only person to loose their family in the fox attack.

Kakashi nodded, "I ... I just needed to make sure you were all right."

Iruka smiled and took Kakashi's hand in his free hand. "I understand." He leaned forward and gave Kakashi a kiss on the small amount of exposed skin by his ear.

"I told them I'd be back in an hour." When Iruka just nodded and smiled, Kakashi left.

He was kept busy for the rest of the night and until just before the funeral for the third. Everyone that could was attending, with guards at the walls ready to set off chakra flares at the slightest hint of anything wrong.

Kakashi was just barely on time for the funeral, and was a ways away from Iruka. He didn't feel like he should go closer. The younger man was kneeling and comforting the third's grandson, Konohamaru.

Kakashi admired the man's ability to deal with emotions as he comforted the young boy and answered Naruto's rather philosophical questions about life and death. Kakashi had to leave before talking to Iruka, he had to take his team and relieve the people on the south wall. Even injured, they were still shinobi. Even Genin could stand watch.

It was almost nightfall when their relief got there. He sent the kids home and went to check with the mission room to see if he was needed.

_-------------- Notes --------------------_

_This is a redo of this chapter. It contains more than the original chapter 16_


	17. Chapter 17

**_Important notes_**

_**I re-edited most of this story, most changes are minor and little corrections but chapter 16 got a MAJOR overhaul as in it is about twice as long as it was.**_

_Disclaimer – The people doing the star village arc in the filler episodes have not been taken out back and kicked, thus Naruto is not mine. TV Tokyo, please, I am begging you, let the rumors of only 2 more weeks of filler be true – or at least do the Gaiden as the rest of this season's filler._

_Spoilers – This contains spoilers for the anime and manga. I am not sure of the exact chapters and episode numbers, but it is well beyond what Cartoon network is showing. It is also beyond what is released by VIZ in English manga since I believe the events referenced are in volume 14 of the manga. This contains spoilers for the end of the Chuunin Exam arc. _

_This chapter covers a lot of the 'plot' of the actual story line, so events are summarized. If you want to know in detail the events referenced, a trip to bittorrent might be your best bet_

_This has been a broadcast of the scribbles alert system, we now return you to your regularly scheduled reading_

------------------------- 17-------------------------

Water Runs Red – Chapter 17

**Please read the note at the top of this if you skipped it**

Iruka was in the mission room, most of the people had cleared out. Evidently, order had been restored to the place and Genma and Iruka had charts spread out on the desk indicating who was in the hospital, who was on light duty, and who was on full duty. The chaos of the day before was replaced with a hectic version of order. Somehow the two men seemed to have taken over.

Genma looked up as Kakashi walked into the room, "Hey." Genma's gentle kick to Iruka's leg was not missed.

"Kakashi…" Iruka said looking up and smiling, "Oh, it is late, shift is over for you."

Kakashi nodded, "I was just seeing if I was needed." The 'or can I go to sleep' was left unspoken.

Genma looked from one to the other, "Ruka, get out of here. Kakashi make sure he goes and rests." He stopped Iruka's protests, "I slept last night, and you didn't. I have control of the mission desk until Izumo and Kotetsu get here."

Iruka nodded and gave in to Genma's demands he get some rest. He let Kakashi lead him off. Kakashi looked at the younger man, "You guys got that place sorted out."

Iruka nodded, "It wasn't too bad. We just had to prioritize things. Ibiki is signing off on almost anything and the council is working on the whole leadership issue."

Kakashi looked over at the chuunin, "I thought the council would have to sign off on a lot of it?"

Iruka shrugged, "Between Ibiki intimidating them and me unleashing the innocent act and the doe eyes on them, we got it pretty well covered."

Kakashi chuckled, realizing they were walking towards Iruka's apartment, "Those doe eyes are lethal you know."

Iruka smiled over at Kakashi, "That's what my father used to say…" he chuckled as he looked back forwards, "Then my mother would use hers and he'd be apologizing before he knew what hit him."

Kakashi smiled, "I missed you."

Iruka reached out and took Kakashi's hand, "I missed you, too." He quickly reached over to kiss Kakashi's cheek through the mask. "I'm too wired to sleep. Are you hungry?"

Kakashi nodded, "Yeah, actually. I think I forgot to eat today."

"I should make you dinner." Iruka started to lead him off without waiting for a reply. It wasn't far to Iruka's apartment and he quickly opened the door. Iruka quickly toed out of his sandals, leaving them by the door as he walked towards the small kitchen.

Kakashi smiled and set his sandals next to Iruka's pair and closed the door behind him. He followed Iruka into the kitchen and walked up behind him, "Maybe just something quick? I'm supposed to make sure you are resting."

Iruka nodded, "Yeah." He popped rice into the rice cooker and turned it on, He pulled out some chicken and some vegetables and started cutting everything up, pretty much without any order to it. "How did the exams go before all hell broke loose?"

Kakashi leaned against the counter, watching Iruka as he threw everything into a pan and started to cook it. "They did good. They did really good. Naruto beat Neji, beat him by using his mind as well as his strength. I was hoping he'd do well, but I thought for him to beat Neji it would be brute force and not out thinking."

Iruka smiled at that, obviously very proud of his loud former student. A look of worry crossed his face before asking, "Sasuke's seal?"

Kakashi nodded, "It stayed under control in the ring. I assume Izumo told you he had to look in on it after they came back from chasing down the sand genin."

Iruka nodded, "Yeah, but it he said it looked a lot better than he thought it would have looked."

Kakashi watched Iruka pour a sauce from the fridge over everything in the pan and start turning it more often, whatever he was making was smelling good. "How have you been?"

Iruka shrugged, "I didn't see the attack coming. We've been out almost non-stop since you left trying to figure out what was going on. I mean I knew something was up, but we thought it was going to be an attack on the Kazekage, not on us. At least that was the information I intercepted."

"That was the information from the mission I was backup for?"

Iruka nodded. "The message was that Orochimaru was going after the Kazekage. I thought the information was reliable, it was hard enough to get. Every instinct I had was saying that information was reliable"

Kakashi nodded, "Maybe something changed between when the information was sent and when the attack was going to happen."

Iruka started to plate the food. "I guess so. I still can't believe they managed to move that many people and we didn't see them coming exactly."

"You guys knew something was up though. When I got back here with Sasuke, I saw all the extra patrols. If it wasn't for that, things could have gone a lot worse."

Iruka smiled as he put down plates on the table, "Thank you."

Kakashi pulled down his mask to eat at a normal pace; it wasn't anything Iruka hadn't already seen after all. "This is good?" he didn't intend to sound as surprised as he did.

"It's easy. Got the recipe from a strip club out in Wave."

Kakashi stopped with food halfway to his mouth and looked over at Iruka, who evidently didn't think anything of what he said since he was just eating.

"A strip club?"

Iruka shrugged, "I've been a lot of places that would surprise some people."

Kakashi shook his head and kept eating, "I don't think anyone has surprised me as much as you have."

"So does that mean you want to try for another date? Even with the horrible luck we have every time we try?" He was smiling as if he already knew the answer.

"I guess it depends. You said you missed me." Kakashi looked across the table to Iruka.

"I did." Iruka was frowning slightly.

"I assume you miss people who mean something to you." Kakashi watched Iruka intently, watching for any sign of what the man was thinking.

"I like you." Iruka tilted his head, "I'm not confessing undying love, but you aren't near as annoying as I originally thought, you're damn comfortable in bed, and you even manage to be fun to be around. Course you're hot as hell, but I don't think that's the response you're asking about?"

Kakashi frowned slightly, "That was more honest than I expected."

Iruka shrugged, "I don't like lying. I do too much of it on missions to allow myself to do it when I don't need to." He smiled, "Since that's in the open, do you want to stay here tonight?"

Kakashi was momentarily taken aback by the forwardness, but he nodded, "Sure. But you need to get some rest."

Iruka smiled as he moved dishes off the table, "That's part of the reason I asked. I never have slept well alone. Let me get you something to sleep in and you can grab a shower while I clean up."

Iruka quickly had some clothes for Kakashi and a towel in the bathroom and was busy getting the kitchen cleaned up after shooing Kakashi off towards the bathroom.

Kakashi took a quick shower and dried himself off before pulling on a pair of black sweatpants that Iruka had found. When he walked out, the kitchen was cleaned up and Iruka was picking up some things from the couch.

Iruka smiled, "I'm going to grab a shower quick, make yourself at home." The chuunin darted into the bedroom and then disappeared into the bathroom and the water could be heard running.

Kakashi walked over to the entertainment center and grabbed the remote, but as he grabbed it, he spotted a photo album on top of the DVD player. Since the water was still running, he opened it up.

The first few pictures showed burns at the side of them as if they were recovered from a fire. The first picture was of Iruka as a small toddler. There was neatly written script on the bottom of the picture 'January 20 – First steps'. The interesting part of it was that Iruka already had his scar. It was a perfectly straight cut in the picture and was already healed and scared over. That was the earliest baby picture in the album, so Kakashi couldn't determine anything else about the scar. There were several more pictures with the burn marks, either pictures of a young Iruka or with one of his two parents. There were a few pictures with all three of them, but he didn't see any other family pictured in any of them.

Once he reached a point in the album that showed pictures of him old enough to be in the academy, there were two familiar faces showing up. Evidently, Izumo and Kotetsu were Iruka's friends going back to school days.

Kakashi almost didn't notice the interesting part of the last slightly burned picture. It was from one of the festivals, it looked like a spring festival. Iruka was dressed up and so were Kotetsu and Izumo. The thing that made the picture interesting was that there was a girl with them. Kakashi had to double check to make sure, but yes. The girl in the light blue Kimono was Anko.

The next picture in the album was of Iruka's Genin team. Kakashi had to laugh. If he thought he had it bad, he could definitely feel bad for the jônin in the picture. The poor guy had gotten Iruka, Izumo AND Kotetsu. Kotetsu had an expression that screamed holy terror. Izumo had a smirk worthy of the Uchiha heir and Iruka was right in the middle of the two.

The water was still running, so Kakashi kept flipping through the album. The pictures after the Genin team picture were all candids of various groupings of the four. At some point the pictures tended more and more towards Iruka with Anko. She was looking more and more like the cocky girl he remembered coming back from Orochimaru. The happy smile on her face was not something he associated with the girl though. Then at some point, the pictures of Iruka with a happy Anko stopped, and things went back to candid snap shots of various groupings of the four of them.

Kakashi had expected to see evidence of a breakup after what he had heard in the sparring match between the two of them, but he hadn't expected it to appear to be when the two of them were about sixteen. There really was a lot about the chuunin and his friends that he didn't know. He put the album back where it was and sat down on the couch with the remote control. He was still debating turning on the TV when the water shut off.

He decided the better option was sitting on the couch and twirling the remote control in circles on one finger. Iruka walked out of the bathroom, towel rying his hair still. He had on a pair of dark green sweatpants. He stopped and smiled when he saw Kakashi sitting on the couch twirling the remote. "Tired?"

Kakashi looked up and nodded, "Yeah."

Iruka smiled and walked up to him, "Want to come to bed?"

Kakashi nodded and stood up, "I don't think I could say no to that."

With that, the chuunin led him off to the bedroom and under the covers of the futon. Suddenly Iruka was softly kissing him. Kakashi returned the gesture and wrapped his arms around Iruka, gently kissing his lips. It wasn't long before Iruka's kisses got sleepier and soon they were just snuggled into each other, Kakashi's arms tight around the younger man. He let himself fall asleep then, not a deep sleep, but much deeper than he normally slept in a strange place with someone else in bed with him

There were definitely worse places to be than in bed with Iruka.


	18. Chapter 18

_**There is a companion fic to this explaining a bit of the history behind the party that is thrown every year. Check my author page for it, its short only 800 some odd words.**_

_Disclaimer – The people doing the star village arc in the filler episodes have not been taken out back and kicked, thus Naruto is not mine_

_Spoilers – This contains spoilers for the anime and manga. I am not sure of the exact chapters and episode numbers, but it is well beyond what Cartoon network is showing. It is also beyond what is released by VIZ in English manga since I believe the events referenced are in volume 14 of the manga. This contains spoilers for the end of the Chuunin Exam arc. _

_This has been a broadcast of the scribbles alert system, we now return you to your regularly scheduled reading_

------------------------- 18-------------------------

Water Runs Red – Chapter 18

Kakashi woke with a start as a strange alarm clock started to go off. There was then the sound of it crashing into a wall. The chuunin lying next to him in bed barely moved, only delivering a well-placed kick to the offending piece of electronics.

Iruka's arms were still wrapped around him and he was greeted by a very sleepy set of brown eyes opening up to look at him. The chuunin yawned, "Good Morning."

Kakashi shook his head and kissed the younger man's forehead. "Sleep well?"

Iruka nodded, "You?"

"Surprisingly well."

Iruka pulled himself out of bed and stumbled over to the chest of drawers to find a new uniform, "If I don't get moving, I'll be late."

Kakashi stretched, "I should get moving too, I'm sure there is plenty to do today."

Iruka started mumbling something about setting up town patrols and wall guarding schedules and that they were days behind on paying missions now. Suddenly he looked over at Kakashi. "You're not much taller than I am; feel free to rummage through here and see if anything fits." The chuunin was pulling on a fresh uniform and slipping into his chuunin vest.

Kakashi nodded and pulled his mask and forehead protector on. He borrowed a spare uniform as Iruka excused himself to make breakfast. When Kakashi made his way out to the main part of the apartment, there was music coming quietly from the stereo. From the smell of things, Breakfast was almost ready.

Iruka wandered out to turn off the stereo, "Morning." He had a cup of coffee in his hands and was seeming much more awake finally. "Coffee?"

After the two men had coffee and breakfast, they walked to the administrative center. The sun was just rising and the damage the town had suffered was apparent. When they got to the mission room, Kotetsu was there alone going over reports. Iruka walked up to him, "Where's Izumo?"

Kotetsu glanced at Kakashi before answering, "Ibiki sent him someplace last night … alone." Kotetsu didn't look at all happy about that.

Iruka muttered, "Fuck, I'm sure he's OK." Before grabbing some reports. He tossed a scroll to Kakashi, "That's who we have available. I need plans for covering the perimeter of the village with as few people as possible so we can start assigning others to missions."

Kakashi just nodded, definitely not even thinking of pulling rank and started to figure out how to do this with the fewest people as Iruka started to organized groups to rebuild the village and Kotetsu prioritized the external missions.

As the sun got higher, the plans became more viable. Soon shinobi were showing up and being quickly assigned to where they had to go. Kakashi and his Genin were put into one of the rebuilding work details. Genma had shown up shortly after that and was preparing reports for the village elders about how things were going. Iruka was handing out mission scrolls to shinobi in front of them and Kotetsu had left to go and get some sleep. About an hour after Kakashi and his Genin had left to go and clear debris, Anko, Kurenai and Asuma walked in.

The mission room was operating once again like a well-oiled machine. Iruka handed out a scroll to a shinobi who instantly headed off for his mission. Iruka then turned to look at a very tired looking Anko. Suddenly she paled. Iruka paused in mid-movement and Kurenai walked up, "What do you have for my team."

Anko collapsed to her knees, her hand gripping her neck as she struggled to breathe through the pain.

Kurenai was down at her friend's side in a second. Iruka jumped the table and was at Anko's other side. Genma was standing up behind the table, watching and ready to do anything he could to help.

Kurenai glared at Iruka as he removed Anko's hand from on top of her seal and placed his own hand over it. Instantly, he was talking to Anko softly, telling her it was OK and to relax. As he started to guide her through a relaxation exercise Anko should know well enough to not need guidance, some of the tension in her body started to leave.

Iruka looked over at Genma, "When is Izumo expected back?"

Genma shook his head, "Tonight at the earliest."

Kurenai looked at Genma, "What does Izumo have to do with this? What the hell is going on?"

Iruka ignored the woman's question, "I'll have to seal it up then."

Kurenai looked at him, "What do you mean?"

Genma frowned, "Izumo is a seals expert. Iruka isn't half bad himself."

Iruka frowned, "Genma, can you handle things here? Kurenai-san, Asuma-san, can the two of you help me with Anko-chan?" He was softly petting the woman's hair as he continued calming the seal on her neck.

Asuma nodded and Kurenai didn't say anything, which was as good as Iruka could have hoped for. Genma tossed the chuunin's pack over to him, he caught it, placing it on his shoulder, and he picked up the smaller woman. Anko shuddered a little as she was picked up, momentarily whimpering, as Iruka had to take the hand off of her dark seal for a moment.

He carried her out of the mission room, ignoring the looks from incoming shinobi as Asuma and Kurenai followed him. He led them to an empty room down the hallway. "Asuma-san, can you hold her?" As he passed the mostly limp form over to Asuma, He carefully placed the other man's hand over the black mark on Anko's neck, "Just keep a firm pressure here. Until I can get it sealed, this is as good as we can do for pain control. She's going to whimper a little bit, but I'm going to go as quick as I can."

He started to dig through his pack, grabbed a bottle of ink and a brush, and started to go to work on the bare floor. He wasn't as quick at this as Izumo, but he was still very quick. Kurenai kept an eye on what he was doing and moved over towards where Asuma was holding Anko. She tried to comfort the woman, a very concerned look on her face.

She stayed close to Asuma. She watched as Iruka flew through writing out the designs of the seal without needing to consult anything. "What is going on, Iruka?"

He sighed; too worried by the events to realize Kurenai was speaking to him like an actual human being. He kept writing, "Her cursed seal has destabilized. I am not sure why, either because of the contact with Orochimaru, or the death of the third, or something else. It hasn't been this bad in years though. The seal the third put around it to help stabilize it is completely gone, so I'm going to have to re-do it."

He gingerly took Anko from Asuma and started to carry her to the center of the circle. "If anything goes wrong, Kakashi might be able to finish it, either that or sedate her until Izumo gets back, OK?" With a kiss to Anko's forehead, he gingerly placed her in the center of the circle, his arms holding her tenderly.

Iruka then pulled out a kunai and slit his palm, pressing the bloody hand onto the writing of the circle. Slowly, over the course of ten minutes, he poured chakra into the sealing jutsu, holding it steady as the writing wrapped right around the two of them, ending with a tight circle of glowing writing encircling her cursed seal. He was drained. The ten minutes of complete exertion left him with almost no chakra and he collapsed onto Anko, his head falling onto her shoulder, as he was just barely conscious enough to cushion their fall to the hard floor.

Anko's fingers were clutching his vest and she was just barely conscious. Kurenai disconnected Anko from Iruka and carefully picked her up, looking down at Iruka as Asuma knelt down and propped Iruka up into a sitting position. Iruka managed to say, "Just give me a second, that was … tiring."

The door opened up and Ibiki walked in. He quickly looked around, "Genma told me what happened. Is Anko OK?"

Iruka nodded, not even bothering to open his eyes yet, "Yeah, I sealed it up. I want Izumo to check it when he gets back."

Ibiki frowned, "He sent a message. He's delayed and needs backup. I'm sending you."

Iruka just looked up at the man from his position on the floor. His expression blank and unreadable.

Kurenai frowned at Ibiki, "We can't be that short staffed that you'd send someone like him."

Iruka just pulled his knees up to his chest and rested his head in his palms waiting for this all to end. He was much too tired to try to defend himself to Kurenai.

Asuma said, "But, he is worn out, he just did a seal on Anko, I don't think the guy has enough chakra to be sent out."

Ibiki looked from one jonin to the other. "Look, Iruka works for me." He ignored the chuunin trying to sink into the floor. "He can infiltrate to where Izumo is without being suspicious, so he will have to be the one to go." He threw an envelope to Iruka, the white paper landing in front of the chuunin's feet.

Iruka simply grabbed the envelope and opened it. His eyes widened as he read what was written on it. There was a look of burning rage in his normally peaceful brown eyes as he looked up at Ibiki, "You fucking monster."

Ibiki didn't say anything; he just clenched his jaw and waited. Asuma tightened his grip on the chuunin, just in case.

"What the hell were you thinking sending him there! Alone! Don't you ever learn you fucking sadist." Tears were welling in Iruka's eyes as he glared at the jonin interrogator.

"It had to be done." Ibiki frowned, "I didn't want to, but it had to be done."

"I barely lived when I was inserted into that place." Iruka looked down at the floor and bit his lip. He then looked back up at Ibiki.

The torturer was looking at the floor, "I'm sorry."

Iruka sighed, "I'll get him out of there. I don't know how, but I will."

He took a vial of powder out of the envelope; it was standard issue chakra powder for ANBU forces. The stuff would give you a jolt of chakra and energy but coming down off it was a headache. There were three more vials in the envelope, "I'm going now. Anything else?"

Ibiki shook his head as the other two jonin watched him. "You know where. Find Izumo, get the info, and get out with him. I'll keep patrols out that way as backup once you cross the border back into fire."

Iruka simply nodded, "Someone needs to keep an eye on Anko until we get back."

Kurenai looked from Iruka to Ibiki, finally noticing she might have been wrong with her assumptions, "I can take her back to her apartment and split watching her with my student Hinata."

Iruka simply nodded and uncapped one of the vials. "This stuff tastes like shit." Instead of mixing it with a liquid like ANBU normally do, he brought the vial up to his nose and inhaled it with a practiced ease no one could miss."

He winced as the powder kicked in, shuddering a bit as he breathed in shaking gasps. After a minute or so, his breath calmed down and he stood up. Iruka ignored the shocked looks on Kurenai and Asuma's faces at having just inhaled chakra powder like it was nothing unusual. For him it was typical, they just didn't know that.

He dumped out the contents of his pack and pulled on tan pants and a tan shirt – completely ignoring whomever he was quickly changing in front of, "I'll need someone to escort me out of visual range of the main gates." He pulled on his lighter green vest with the double pockets and pulled up the mask on his tan shirt to hide the scar across his nose. He took his grass bandana and covered up as much of his hair as he could. He then popped in blue contacts before shoving everything back into his bag.

Asuma looked at the chuunin, "I can escort him."

"I'll get Anko set up at my place." Kurenai for once was not glaring at the chuunin.

Ibiki nodded. "No word to anyone about where Iruka went, Genma knows so don't worry about him,"

Ibiki turned and left and Iruka took one final look at Anko before kissing her forehead and whispering, "I'll be back real soon with Izumo, don't worry precious." He squeezed the unconscious woman's hand again before standing up and gesturing he was ready to Asuma.

He nodded to Asuma and followed the larger man out of the building and to the gates. As they were walking through the trashed streets, the larger man turned to Iruka, "Iruka? I didn't know you worked for Ibiki."

Iruka nodded, "Kurenai told you about her student, Keiko, right?"

When Asuma nodded, Iruka continued, "I've worked for Ibiki a long time. Things go wrong on these missions. You know things go wrong on missions. I swear I never abandoned a comrade though. I killed the man that did that to her."

Asuma lead him through the front gate, "Ibiki doesn't trust a lot of people."

Iruka shook his head, "I've worked with him for a very long time."

Asuma nodded, "When you get back, we should clear the air. I think we might have misjudged you."

Iruka smiled, "That sounds good. I'll be back with Izumo real soon, I can't let Anko down." With that, he took off at his top speed through the trees. He had a lot of ground to cover and very little time to do it in. He didn't even have a chance to register the surprised look on Asuma's face at the speed of the chuunin's movements.

Iruka didn't waste any time. He went full out at a breakneck pace. If Ibiki was sending him out after Izumo, it was bad. Not just bad, but really bad. He needed to get to Izumo before anything horrible happened. He still had nightmares about the place and he hadn't been there for four years. He ignored the havoc the chakra powder was wreaking on his body. It was never good when Iruka had to resort to that stuff. It made controlling his chakra very difficult, and for someone like him, control was everything.

He propelled himself through the forest as fast as he could, pure instincts leading him away from Konoha and towards grass. He knew where Izumo would be. There was a border town barely inside of grass territory. The place was lawless and anything could be found there for the right price, including people. It was a perfect place for people like them to work – Too perfect. He stashed his backpack in a small cave along a stream. He frowned as he placed his own backpack next to another one hidden there. He had to get Izumo out.

Taking the rest of the first vial of chakra powder, he set off towards the town at an even faster speed. He wouldn't last long like this, but rest was for the dead, not shinobi who had to save a teammate.

_-------------------- Notes ------------------------_

_Please review, I would love to know what people are thinking of this. Now that I'm back, updates should be back on their every other day or so schedule. I still plan to have this done by the end of the month. _


	19. Chapter 19

_Disclaimer – If I owned Naruto, there would have been more of a certain person in that second movie. Thus, Naruto, still not mine, world domination, still not accomplished._

_Spoilers – This contains spoilers for the anime and manga. I am not sure of the exact chapters and episode numbers, but it is well beyond what Cartoon network is showing. It is also beyond what is released by VIZ in English manga since I believe the events referenced are in volume 15 of the manga. This contains spoilers for the end of the Chuunin Exam arc. _

_Warnings --- Uh yeah, umm major warnings on this, it might be a bite more graphic than the other chapter with major warnings_

_This has been a broadcast of the scribbles alert system, we now return you to your regularly scheduled reading_

------------------------- 19 -------------------------

Water Runs Red – Chapter 19

Iruka slowed his pace when he got insight of the town. It wouldn't do for people to see through his disguise. This town was frequented by grass shinobi so his headband and light tan uniform went with little notice except street vendors trying to attract his attention in an effort to sell their wares.

Iruka found his way to a bar of very ill repute. More specifically, it was a brothel with a bar as a front. It was a place that catered to every form of diversion, as long as you could pay for it. Sitting in the alleyway behind the bar, he slowly gathered his chakra and calmed it. He stretched out his awareness, careful so as to not alert anyone, just passively reaching. This was one of his only good 'tricks' as a ninja. He could find his teammates. He sensed Izumo and just barely let his chakra flare, centering it on the tattoo on the other man's neck. Only one of the team would know to do that.

He scoped out the building and traced where the electrical wires came from. He stayed to the shadows as the sun set. He remained in the alleyway, hiding behind a dumpster and resting until the sky started to turn orange. Then he took out a blank scroll tag and began to draw on it. Instead of turning it into a standard exploding tag, he made it into one that would have a thirty-minute fuse before blowing. The bad part was during that 30 minutes it would be glowing so he would need to be very careful with his placement.

Iruka had been in this place before and knew that all the backrooms were monitored with close circuit cameras. The main part of the bar had security from former shinobi. The front door was not an option for them to make a break from; the only option was to use the element of surprise.

As the sun set and darkness covered the village, he downed another whole vial of chakra powder and snorted a second half. Under cover of darkness, he made his move. Carefully scaling a telephone pole, he placed the chakra tag between the pole and the transformer for the electric lines. He then set the tag off and jumped to the ground. He made his way into the bar taking in the smell of too much spilt alcohol and the stale smoke. He made his way over to the bar and got a shot of something that the bartended claimed to be whiskey, but tasted much worse.

He made his way over to the grouping of – hell, Iruka didn't remember what they should be called, they were just the pieces of meat this place had for sale. Some money and you get whomever for a while. Men, Women, ones who didn't qualify as either of those. Iruka had seen too much depravity in the world to be bothered by it as he walked over and propositioned one specific man. With an ease he was glad his fellow shinobi back in leaf never saw, he had a room and a male prostitute propositioned.

He closed the door to the room and pressed the whore up against the door to murmur into his ear. The man was slightly shorter than Iruka and of a thinner build with blond hair and looked like he had been beaten severely recently. He leaned over and whispered into his purchase's ear "We're being watched right?"

The blond nodded and pressed up against Iruka, he whispered with his breath hot against Iruka's ear, "Cameras above the mirror and the window." While the battered blond didn't look like Izumo, his voice was still that of the chuunin.

Iruka purred into Izumo's ear as he started to take the other man's shirt off, "The power should go out in ten minutes, we'll break out through the window then."

Izumo licked Iruka's ear, his hands playing through the dark brown hair. He started to whisper the information he had found out. Iruka acted as if whatever Izumo was doing to his ear was incredibly erotic. Incase he couldn't get Izumo out of there; he had to memorize the information the other chuunin breathed into his ear. One of them had to get out, this was too important for Konoha to let either of their lives come between it. Unfortunately, of their four-person team, they were the two with the least lethality in a fight, so it would be hard.

Izumo started to unbuckle the light green vest and then kissed his way down over the shirt. He stopped when he reached right above the belt and started to unbuckle it. The entire time he made sure to keep Iruka's back towards the cameras. The less exposure to film the greater their chances of no one recognizing the other chuunin.

Iruka continued the mental countdown in his mind as to when the blast was going to go off. He was trying not to feel guilty that he was having Izumo act out the part of a male whore. It had to be done. It was a mission. If it wasn't believable then they would be captured and the information wouldn't reach Konoha. Maybe it was time for him to quit working for Ibiki. He was having a harder and harder time separating 'work' from 'not work' and Izumo on his knees in front of him felt too good.

He wasn't acting when he moaned and grunted in response. His hands were gripped into the dyed blond hair as he urged Izumo; at least it was a believable show for the people behind the cameras. Iruka thought that maybe he could blame it on the chakra powder. He had taken two and a half vials of the stuff since noon and normally more than 2 in a 24 hour period would get you bitched out by the medic nins.

Suddenly there was a small explosion outside about a block away and the power went out. Pulling himself away from Izumo, and wishing it wasn't as reluctant as it was, he began whispering orders as he pulled his pants back up. "I got the door; you start on the bars over the window."

A simple seal on the door to delay people and some expertly applied chakra and they were out through the formerly barred window without any sound. They ran as hell-bent as they could while still dodging patrols, only getting into a brief fight with one group of thugs.

Izumo's chakra reserves were in good condition, but the man was running with a noticeable limp from his injuries in the brothel. Iruka's reserves were failing; unfortunately, the fight took out most of what the powder had given him. The first dose of the powder might work great, but it was a lesson in diminishing returns for all doses after that. They ran through the grasslands trying to get to the river where their packs were.

When they got to the cave, Iruka collapsed. Izumo quickly checked him over and made sure there was nothing worse than Chakra depletion. That's when he discovered Iruka had been hurt more than he had let on in the fight with the thugs.

Iruka looked down at the slash on his thigh, "Fuck, I didn't even feel it." He laid back as Izumo bandaged up his leg. The other bad part of the chakra powder was it made wounds difficult to feel. Shinobi had bled to death from wounds they never even felt as a result of the powder, and if not for Izumo, Iruka could have been another one.

They got dressed into their leaf uniforms, Iruka taking the second half of the third vial in order to be able to stand. He was hoping the forth dose would last until he got back to Konoha.

By the time that they crossed the main gates, it was late morning of the next day. The powder was used up and Iruka could feel his imminent collapse coming soon. He had to get Izumo to Anko though. He hurried them to her apartment. Ibiki could come and debrief them there, two beat up shinobi stumbling through the front gate would be something Ibiki would find out about.

By the time they got to Anko's door, he was dizzy and the world was starting to go dark. He knocked but didn't wait before opening the never locked door and walking in.

Asuma POV

Asuma watched the chuunin take off through the trees. To say he was surprised would be an understatement. He had assumed the chuunin was nothing but a paper pusher. Suddenly he was confronted with the man doing a complex seal completely from memory. He knew Genma had always been friendly towards the man, but Genma was just easy going like that.

He'd had to take that chakra powder a few times in his time as a shinobi, and it was brutal. That Ibiki threw four doses of it to Iruka spoke volumes for what had been going on behind their backs. He hadn't even suspected the chuunin worked for Ibiki, evidently, Izumo did as well.

Asuma wasn't as stupid as people assumed he was. Sure, he'd get his butt handed to him at shoji by his student, but not being a genius with an IQ over 200 and being an idiot were two distinct things. He'd bet money that Anko was involved in this as well. If Izumo and Iruka were in something, he was willing to bet Kotetsu and Anko were as well. He hurried back to Anko's apartment to check on Kurenai. They needed to get things situated quickly so they could start patrolling the village. Their students, besides Hinata of course, were assigned to cleanup, and he and Kurenai were supposed to be patrolling the village while the genin worked at clearing out damaged buildings.

He knocked on the door to Anko's apartment. Hinata opened the door, "Asuma-sensei, Kurenai-sensei is with Anko." The shy girl gestured towards an open door leading to what Asuma assumed was a bedroom. The girl quickly resumed cleaning the apartment.

Asuma ignored the empty beer bottles and other trash that the girl was cleaning and walked towards the room where Anko and Kurenai were. He stepped in and saw Kurenai replacing a moist cloth on top of Anko's forehead.

"How is she?"

Kurenai looked up at him, "She seems comfortable at least. Iruka left?"

Asuma nodded. "I told him when he gets back the three of us should clear the air. If he and Kakashi are going to keep seeing each other, we should make sure none of us are operating under incorrect assumptions."

Kurenai frowned, "I am not assuming anything. I know what happened to my student and that no one was there to stop it. He didn't do anything to stop that man from hurting my student."

Asuma nodded, "Iruka told me he killed the man that did that to her."

Kurenai just frowned, "Too little too late."

Asuma sat down, looking at the picture on Anko's nightstand. He picked up the simple frame. It looked like it was from genin graduation day. Instead of a team, it showed Izumo, Kotetsu, Iruka and Anko -- no jônin sensei. The four were smiling a more honest smile than he saw in many graduating pictures. Anko had her head resting on Iruka's and was in the middle. Izumo was on one side holding up rabbit ear fingers over Anko's head and Kotetsu was on the other side, one hand on Iruka's shoulder, the other thrown around Anko. Anko for her part had her arms over the shoulders of both Kotetsu and Izumo. The four looked like they had been friends for a long time.

Asuma put the picture down on the nightstand. "We're going to talk to him." He looked over at Anko. "She still trusts him for some reason."

Kurenai nodded, "I know, I don't know why."

Asuma stood up, "We should get back to patrolling." They left Anko under Hinata's care and assumed by the time they got back from patrolling the apartment would be cleaned.

Kakashi POV

Kakashi for his part started to supervise the three genin assigned to him as they cleared away damage. A few sarcastic comments and quickly the two boys were trying to out do one another and see who could carry away the most rubble. A few hours later, he left the kids to make a quick patrol of the town, maybe stop by the mission desk, and just make sure things were going well.

He ran into Kurenai and Asuma in front of a teashop. As he was talking to them, he noticed something odd about two of the people in the shop, but then they were gone. He decided he'd check in on Iruka later and decided to check around the village some more. Something was definitely wrong. Unfortunately, he didn't get a chance to check in on Iruka that day. He barely was able to stop Itachi and Kisame from killing Asuma and Kurenai. Actually, he wasn't sure he managed that since his entire world quickly became a black coma like existence.

Back to Asuma &&&&&&&&&

Asuma had never been so happy to see Gai as when he showed up at the battle by the river. As they carried the unconscious Kakashi back to the city, he knew how lightly they had gotten off. He was spending too much of his day around unconscious people.

Somehow with how the day was going, it didn't surprise him that when they had the unconscious Kakashi settled in his apartment with Gai promising to stay there with him that Aoba would come barging in screaming about Itachi when Sasuke was there. It also didn't surprise him to find out that Naruto had gone off with Jiraiya and that Sasuke evidently went off after them. Some days just sucked like that.

Asuma and Kurenai walked back to Anko's apartment, and Asuma found himself hoping that Anko hadn't drank all the alcohol in the place, because he sure could use a stiff drink.

He didn't think Iruka would be getting back that night so he grabbed a beer from Anko's fridge and sat down to watch TV while Kurenai fussed over the unconscious woman. At least they were pretty sure that Kurenai would wake up on her own, whether Kakashi would, now that was another question. He didn't know what Itachi had done, but whatever it was, was not good. His last thought before he fell asleep on the couch was that, damn, he'd need to get a leather couch, this thing was comfy.

He pulled a late sentry post and was back mid morning. Just as he was getting ready to watch Anko for a bit so Kurenai could check up on the genin, he heard a knock on the door and Iruka came stumbling through the door looking like hell warmed over. Izumo was right behind him.

Izumo grabbed Iruka by the shoulders and hauled his sorry ass over to the couch. He jerked his head towards Asuma, "Keep an eye on him for a minute, OK?" With that, Izumo limped into the bedroom where Anko was. He was sporting a fair amount of bruises and looked tired, but not exhausted like Iruka. He also had blond hair, which Asuma thought was a little odd.

Iruka looked up at Asuma, obviously too exhausted to get up off the couch. The chuunin's hands were twitching and he had a twitch on the side of his face as well. Asuma had seen enough after effects of too much chakra powder to recognize the signs. He asked, "Can I get you anything?"

Iruka sighed and looked up before asking in a hopeful tone, "Does she have any beer in her fridge? It might be hidden in the crisper."

Asuma shook his head and smirked as he grabbed another beer from the fridge. He walked over to Iruka who had managed to move a bit and be sitting up against the one armrest of the couch, looking for all the world like he was going to fall asleep right there, if only he could stop twitching.

Iruka gladly accepted the beer and took a gulp of it before wincing, "Fuck, I forgot she drinks this crap." That didn't stop him from taking a second and third gulp though. Asuma just chuckled and pulled out a cigarette. Before he had a chance to light it, Iruka was giving him a questioning look.

"What? I've been up too long and need one." He was sick of everyone getting on his case about smoking.

"Oh, Uh, not that, I was going to ask if I could borrow one. Hands are just shaking so bad." Iruka tried to smile as he looked up at Asuma.

Reaching into a pocket to pull out the pack and handed one over to Iruka, "You look like you need it."

Iruka just smiled gratefully and pulled a lighter out of his pocket. He mumbled something about sucking at fire jutsu and lit the cigarette before inhaling deeply. He closed his eyes as the nicotine slowed the shaking a bit. "Do you know when Kakashi and his genin will be done for the day?"

Asuma didn't answer, and just frowned, damn, and today had been better than yesterday.

_-------------------- Notes ------------------------_

_The Itachi scene is skimmed over, for full details see the Anime or read the Manga – assuming you are able to get your hands on something that far ahead what Viz has put out or cartoon network is showing. Events reference chapter 140-144 or so._

_Please review, I would love to know what people are thinking of this. Now that I'm back, updates should be back on their every other day or so schedule. I still plan to have this done by the end of the month. _


	20. Chapter 20

_Disclaimer – If I owned Naruto, there would have been more of a certain person in that second movie. Thus, Naruto, still not mine, world domination, still not accomplished._

_Spoilers – This contains spoilers for the anime and manga. I am not sure of the exact chapters and episode numbers, but it is well beyond what Cartoon network is showing. It is also beyond what is released by VIZ in English manga since I believe the events referenced are in volume 15 of the manga._

_Short glossary: I used the word once before but I will use 'koibitto' since I don't think there really is an accurate enough word in English since it is gender neutral. But it can basically be translated to boyfriend/girlfriend._

_I'm not completely happy with this chapter. It is very heavy on dialog and dialog is my weak point, but I couldn't think of a way around the dialog. The next chapter jumps us back into the action of the plot._

_Added warning: grumpy Iruka evidently felt the need to curse something fierce, so warning. _

_This has been a broadcast of the scribbles alert system, we now return you to your regularly scheduled reading_

------------------------- 20 -------------------------

Water Runs Red – Chapter 20

Iruka sat up, his eyes widening, "What aren't you telling me?"

Asuma shrugged, "It's nothing."

Iruka's eyes narrowed, "What happened."

Asuma finished his cigarette, "We ran into Itachi."

"Uchiha? Uchiha Itachi?" The sudden rush of adrenalin had the Chuunin wide-awake despite the exhaustion.

"Kakashi was knocked unconscious by something, the med-nins …" Asuma paused there and looked randomly around the apartment.

Iruka forced himself up off the couch, "What the hell? Where is he? What's going on?" He had a deathlike grip on one of the couch arms to keep from falling over.

Izumo walked out of the bedroom followed by Kurenai, "'Ruka, Anko should be up in the next few hours, you did a good job." When he saw his friend's look, he tensed up, "What's wrong?"

Iruka turned to Izumo, "Something happened to Kakashi and this ass won't tell me what."

Asuma sighed, "Look, in your condition, you'd pass out before you made it to his apartment anyways. He's unconscious and it doesn't look like that's going to be changing anytime soon, so just sit your ass back down."

Iruka looked towards Izumo, the pleading look evident in his eyes. Without words his long time friend just nodded, "I have Anko, you go."

Without another word, Iruka had his pack and was charging through the door with Asuma hot on his heels trying to stop him. Iruka took to the rooftops, but with so little chakra left, and what he did have being the leftovers from the forth vial of chakra powder, it was weak and undependable at best. As he ran across the rooftops, his feet were slipping and sparking in poorly formed chakra. Occasionally, he was blasting himself up off the roof instead of sticking to it and Asuma was able to quickly catch up to him. Luckily, it wasn't far to Kakashi's apartment and Iruka was able to dodge the grabs the jônin made.

Iruka more fell into the door than landed in front of it, and flung it open to stagger in. He was twitching worse than before after the added chakra drain caught up with him. Kiba stepped out of the bedroom to see what was going on. His eyes widened as he saw his old academy sensei stumble past him into the bedroom and fall to his knees next to Kakashi's bed.

Iruka's shaking was halfway between trembling and convulsions as he checked over the unconscious Kakashi. By that point all his mind could do was register that Kakashi was alive and breathing and didn't seem in pain or uncomfortable. Then the chuunin's world went black.

* * *

When Iruka woke up, it was dark. He found himself somewhere strange, yet familiar. His uniform was gone; he thought he had been in his Konoha uniform. He was wearing just his underwear. His leg felt very stiff, and yeah, he could feel a tight bandage on it. He was on a futon under a blanket. Carefully he considered things. He smelt Kakashi. Actually, he also smelt dog and he was pretty sure he could assume he was at Kakashi's apartment.

He slowly opened an eye. The room was dimly lit by a single light on the desk. He sat up and looked around. He was in Kakashi's bedroom. For some reason he was on a futon on the floor. He blinked at the person sitting in the chair in front of the desk. His brain tried to process everything. "Gai-sensei?"

The green clad jônin looked over at Iruka, "Iruka-sensei. I was wondering when you were going to wake up. Please, take it easy, you are safe amongst friends. Ibiki-san insists you must have some food when you wake up. You were so possessed by the need to complete your mission that you have neglected to recharge your body with sustenance."

Iruka blinked, "How'd I get here? Food?" Suddenly his eyes shot wide open and he gasped turning towards Kakashi's bed, "Itachi, Kakashi, Unconscious, fuck!" He scrambled to the bed to look at Kakashi; the silver-haired jônin was still unconscious. He turned a confused look towards Gai.

Gai smiled, "My Eternal rival was able to save Asuma-san and Kurenai-san from Itachi. I arrived too late to prevent his taking a severe mental attack, but was able to cause Itachi and the one traveling with him to retreat. Do not fear; the jônin of this village with the ANBU will keep things safe."

Iruka blinked and thought about it. Then he blinked and thought some more. Then he heard the click click click of dog nails on wooden floors. He glanced as Pakkun walked into the bedroom. He then turned back to Gai, "Gai-sensei? Why are you here?"

Gai smiled and stood up, striking a needlessly chipper pose, "I am here to keep watch over my eternal rival as he recovers from the attack of the traitorous Uchiha."

Iruka turned to the pug, still looking just as confused. Pakkun sat down, "Don't look at me. I just know no one has fed me since the Inuzuka boy was here."

Iruka just looked around confused, "What day is it?"

Gai frowned, "Thursday."

Iruka looked down at the blankets. "I … I …" He looked over at Kakashi. "How long has he been unconscious?"

Gai frowned, "Since Monday"

Iruka frowned, "I left for Grass on Monday." He looked over at Gai, "Is he going to wake up?"

Gai looked deadly serious as he frowned, "They think he will. My rival will not allow himself to be beaten so easily."

Iruka sighed and looked over at Pakkun before picking up the pug who put up much less resistance than would be normal for a nin-dog being picked up by someone other than his master. Iruka wrapped his arms around Pakkun and leaned up against Kakashi's bed, evidently not carrying that he was sitting in his underwear in front of a Jônin her barely knew in Kakashi's bedroom.

Gai looked at Iruka, as if trying to decide to say something, "When was the last time you ate?"

"Monday, I think." Iruka just stared blankly at the floor.

Gai stood up, "You should eat something simple then. I'll be back." He walked out of the room and could be hear moving things around in the kitchen.

Iruka let go of Pakkun and got onto his hands and knees to look at Kakashi. "I should have been here."

Pakkun snorted, "There wasn't anything you could have done."

Iruka set his head down on the blanket over Kakashi's hand, "I should have still been here. I mean, maybe Kakashi wouldn't be unconscious."

The pug jumped up onto the bed and sat down on the other side of Kakashi's body, "Look, don't beat yourself up. I haven't been any help either."

Iruka reached out a trembling hand to scratch Pakkun's ear, "I'm sure he knows you're hanging around here keeping an eye out for him."

Gai called out from the kitchen, "Iruka-sensei, I have some food prepared for you. You must eat and return the vigor to your body."

Carefully Iruka stood up, using the bed and then the wall to support his weakened and trembling body. Slowly he made his way from the bedroom, not caring that he was only in his underwear. Carefully he made his way down to the kitchen, using the hallway wall as a brace. As soon as Gai saw how slowly he was walking and how crucial the wall was to that process, he jumped up and started to assist the chuunin to a chair.

On the table was a bowl of something. Iruka picked up the spoon next to the bowl and poked it. The tannish substance upon further inspection was truly an unappetizing gruel. He slowly started to eat the unappetizing substance, knowing that was probably best for his body since he hadn't eaten anything in so long.

Gai watched as Iruka's hand shook. "Ibiki has had a medic stop by here a few times while you were unconscious."

Iruka frowned, "I'm sorry. It would have been easier on everyone had I gone to the hospital." He kept eating the gruel, knowing he had to get his body used to food again.

Gai was carefully watching the chuunin, "The medics have been checking on Kakashi anyways.

Iruka sighed and continued to eat the gruel, "Do you know if Anko woke up?"

Gai nodded, "She stopped by earlier. Ibiki should be by in another hour or so, he's been waiting for you to wake up."

Iruka nodded at that information and looked down at the table. He then looked over at Gai, "I don't remember coming here. I don't think I reported in when I got back."

Gai nodded, "They told me how much chakra powder you took. It isn't surprising. You should lie back down, I'm sure Ibiki will wake you up when he gets here."

"Nah, no time for that. I need to be up when Ibiki gets here." He stood up and tilted his neck from side to side, stretching the muscles and cracking it. He then walked back to the bedroom to grab his pack and a clean towel. If Gai noticed the fact that he didn't have to search for the clean towels but just knew where they were, then he didn't say anything.

Iruka disappeared into the bathroom. When he walked back out about thirty minutes later, he was dressed as best as could be expected with what he went in there with. He had cut off the bottoms of the tan pants of the grass uniform and strapped on his Shuriken holster over the thigh wound (to actually cover the slash in the pants). He had a Mesh shirt on which was normally under one of the uniform shirts, but at least he was in more than his underwear.

He walked back into the bedroom and saw Gai was once again sitting there. He walked over to check on Kakashi before turning to look at Gai, "Thanks. I'm sorry I increased the trouble for you."

Gai smiled, "Ah, it is no trouble watching over a comrade. Even the chuunin of the village perform an important service."

Iruka blinked. Obviously, the man meant it as a compliment, but damn did that sound like a slap on the face. "You are friends with Kakashi?"

"Ahh, yes. My eternal rival and I have been friends since back in the war." Gai smiled as he recalled. "The days of battling together to valiantly save Konoha."

Iruka sat down on the bad, placing a hand over the blanket covering Kakashi's leg. "I'm glad Kakashi had a friend to look over him."

Gai smiled again, that man was always smiling, "After bringing Sasuke to the hospital, I knew—"

Iruka cut him off, "Sasuke is in the hospital what happened?" He jumped up from the bed and took a step towards Gai before dropping to a knee.

Gai was up in an instant, "Are you alright?"

Iruka nodded, "Just got up to fast. What happened to Sasuke?"

Gai frowned, "He encountered Itachi. He is safe now, and I can't say anymore than that."

Iruka sat back down on Kakashi's bed. He cut off Gai in the midst of another 'don't worry the jônin and ANBU are protecting the village' speech. "Gai, I must apologize for being rude, but please shut up about the whole Jônin and ANBU thing. I've seen more fucking missions in the past two weeks than most ANBU so I am not in the mood."

Gai shut up and looked serious. "I didn't mean to offend you." He glanced over at Kakashi. "I haven't had much of a chance to speak to Kakashi recently, but he hasn't mentioned you. Why did you come here?"

Iruka bit down on his lower lip, "I don't know if he would want me to say."

"My eternal rival does not keep secretes from me."

"Look, it just isn't my place to say. I mean. Fuck!" He put his head down in his hands, "Like it wouldn't fucking well be obvious and the whole damn gossip network doesn't already know. "

As Iruka looked over at Gai, obviously battling what to tell the man, there was a knock at the door. Gai got up to open it, allowing Ibiki to walk into the room. The head of the torture and interrogation unit was alone.

Ibiki walked into Kakashi's bedroom and looked at Iruka sitting there on the bed, "You almost killed yourself coming here instead of getting medical attention right away."

Iruka frowned and glared at Ibiki as he carefully stood up to face the other man. Gai kept to the outskirts of the room, obviously not sure what was going on.

"Ibiki. Fuck you." Iruka walked over to him, "If you hadn't sent Izumo off there alone, then I wouldn't have had to tear across half of Fire country to get him out of that place. Do you know what those assholes do there? Do you? Because if you knew and you still sent him alone, you are either the biggest fucking sadist in the village or it's true that all jônin are really fucking bat-shit crazy."

Iruka was wobbling as he pointed his finger at Ibiki, but his anger was only just kicking in. "Did your medic tell you the condition Izumo was in? Did you read between the lines to figure out what happened to him to get those injuries? Do you even fucking care what happens to your people? I don't fucking think so. I told you time and time again that this is too dangerous to send them out alone, but do you listen? No, but if I say I can go out alone suddenly you're all, oh no, I can't send anyone alone. Then the second some shit hits the fan, boom. You fucking sent Izumo to that place alone. Did you read my fucking med report after I came back from there? What about my fucking psyche evaluation? Oh, why should any of you fucking jônin be bothered by that shit."

Ibiki cut off the rant, "Iruka, I'm sorry."

Iruka's rant derailed as he looked up at Ibiki. "You …" He sat back down on the bed near Kakashi's feet.

Ibiki leaned up against a wall. "You're right. I shouldn't have sent him alone."

Iruka looked over at Ibiki, "I'm sorry for not reporting straight away."

Ibiki shook his head, "I expected you two to go straight to Anko. I didn't expect you to come here. Genma told me about you and Kakashi." Ibiki walked farther into the room, "You deserve to know what's going on. The elders have decided the Tsunade-sama should be the next Hokage. Jiraiya and Naruto left to find her. Itachi went after Naruto, but Sasuke got there as that was happening. Sasuke ended up in the same shape as Kakashi here, but Itachi escaped. We're waiting for them to come back with Tsunade, and hopefully she'll be able to heal whatever Itachi did to Sasuke and Kakashi. Until then, I've been given the responsibility of making sure we are not the victims of another surprise attack."

Iruka frowned, "Please tell me I can rest until morning at least?"

Ibiki nodded as he handed over a scroll, "I need you there by sunset. What time you need to leave depends on how fast of time you think you can make."

Gai interrupted, "Ibiki, you can not be serious. Iruka-sensei just regained consciousness. There are many Jônin around the village; certainly one of us could take this mission."

Ibiki shook his head, "Gai, not to disrespect the abilities of the shinobi of this village. Iruka is part of a covert squad. Mention of this does not leave this room. His skills are needed for this mission."

Iruka sighed, "When are you sending Destiny and Salvation?" He slipped into using the code names for Izumo and Kotetsu.

"Salvation and Hope are leaving within the hour if they haven't already left. I'm keeping Destiny here for a while to operate around the village."

Iruka frowned, he hadn't expected Anko to be one of the people sent out, "Are you sure Hope is ready to go back out?"

Ibiki nodded. "When do you need to leave on your mission?"

"I'll be by your office before noon. I'll need Genma to redo the poisons and I'll need a new grass uniform, I've trashed this one." He gestured at his tan pants. "Until then, I am going to sleep here and I don't give a shit what anyone says." He lay back down on the futon mattress, clutching the scroll as he pulled the blanket back up over him, and over his head. It may have been a childish way to signal he was done with the conversation, but it was definitely a clear signal.

_-------------------- Notes ------------------------_

_Thanks to the writers who have come before me with the idea that jônin are bat shit crazy._

_Please review, I would love to know what people are thinking of this. Updates should be back on their every other day or so schedule. I still plan to have this done by the end of the month. Sorry this update was a day late_


	21. Chapter 21

_Disclaimer – If I owned Naruto, there would be a swimsuit issue._

_Spoilers – This contains spoilers for the anime and manga. I am not sure of the exact chapters and episode numbers, but it is well beyond what Cartoon network is showing. It is also beyond what is released by VIZ in English manga._

_This has been a broadcast of the scribbles alert system, we now return you to your regularly scheduled reading_

------------------------- 21 -------------------------

Water Runs Red – Chapter 21

Iruka woke up slowly the next morning. He was sore and tired still. Iruka slowly opened his eyes and looked around. He was in the room alone with Kakashi; he could hear someone out in the main part of the apartment doing something in the kitchen that sounded like cooking.

He stretched and got up to his hands and knees. Kakashi was still unconscious of course, but he looked so peaceful. Iruka crawled over to the side of his bed and gently kissed his forehead. Only the mask was in place, the forehead protector had been taken off since it wasn't needed when he had his eyes closed. Iruka gently ran his fingers through the grey hair before running one finger over the exposed portion of Kakashi's nose. Gently he traced the top of the mask with his finger before leaning over again to kiss the pale forehead.

He heard someone clear their throat behind him. Slowly, he turned and looked over at where Gai was standing in the doorway. Iruka smiled and stood up, "I should be leaving. He's in good hands."

Gai nodded, "I made breakfast. I can't let you go without eating something. Kakashi wouldn't forgive me if I let his … uh, if I let you go without eating."

Iruka just nodded as he grabbed his pack form the floor. He didn't feel like discussing the state of his relationship with Kakashi at this hour of the morning. "Thank you. I am sorry if I was short with you last night."

Gai walked to the kitchen table, "It's perfectly understandable. I am surprised Ibiki is sending you out so quickly. You must be very talented."

Iruka sat down at the table and started to eat the grilled fish and vegetables. "My family has always been more geared towards intelligence work." He paused the eating, with some fish in his mouth he was chewing, and unwrapped his shuriken holster so he could check his thigh wound. He grabbed some salve from his pack and started to treat his thigh wound with it before rebandaging the whole thing.

"You came from a ninja family?" Gai looked over at the chuunin, "I don't remember any Uminos during the war."

"Covert ops. My parents were both ANBU." Iruka shrugged, "My father did assassinations, he wasn't a battle type and my mother was exclusively used undercover. I'm not surprised you never met them." Iruka kept eating breakfast; he wasn't sure when his next meal would be so he didn't want to waste anything in front of him.

Iruka finished eating as much as he could before grabbing his pack, "Thank you for breakfast Gai-sensei. I must be off. Take good care of Kakashi-kun for me." He blushed slightly as he realized he used kun instead of san. With that, Iruka left to change clothes at his apartment and reload his backpack. He was at the headquarters for Torture and Interrogation within an hour of leaving Kakashi's and quickly tracked down Genma and had his lip piercings back in place. They were subtle enough that he doubted anyone would notice as he quickly made his way out of the village. They didn't have the manpower to spare escorting him out under cover of being a grass nin.

This time he wasn't going to grass, he was headed to wave to check out a rumor of a missing nin from sound being seen there. No one knew a lot about her, except that she was a her. Once Iruka reached the outskirts of Fire country, he paused to change. He was going to play the part of someone who was not a ninja, so all of his weapons had to be stashed in his pack along with his uniform. He changed into a pair of low waisted pants with pockets on the legs in a gray/brown camouflage pattern. He pulled on brown boots and a brown tight fitting T-shirt with the name of a relatively obscure band on it. He left his hair down just brushing it away from his face as he grabbed his pack and continued on his way to the town the rumors originated at.

He reached the town before sunset, which was the only requirement that Ibiki had given him. He strolled into town as if he were just another person wandering from one town to another. He walked along the main street, trying to find a place to eat and sleep. He walked by several hotels, those weren't the kind of places he was looking for.

He finally found what he was looking for. In the midst of what seemed to be the bar area of town, there was a small hotel. It obviously didn't have a restaurant or a clientele that didn't make use of it as short-term apartments. It was perfect. He walked in, got himself a room and dropped off his unnecessary stuff before heading out to scope out the bars.

He started going to all the bars in town, one by one. He had developed a cover story of being an out of work musician/bartender. He made conversation with everyone he could. He said he came from the far side of wave, and he had the accent down perfectly so everyone seemed to believe him. He ended up in card games and dart games and made sure to lose slightly more than he won so that no one would suspect him of being anything.

Eventually he found the bar with the greatest concentration of shinobi. Of course, none of them were wearing forehead protectors, but it was very hard to hide the chakra development being a shinobi caused. Iruka had developed exactly that type of control to hide the development of his chakra, and he knew it was a very rare skill. He spent a few hours there without finding out anything and it was getting late so he went back to his room to sleep. He was still exhausted from the depletion he went through on the mission to grass.

The next day, Iruka woke up and carefully dressed. Tan pants just an inch too low at the waist, dark green shirt just a tad too tight, hair just slightly mussed. He went out to scout out the town and try to find the person he was looking for. He knew asking around wouldn't work, if he were a sound missing-nin he would try to make sure no one ever even suspected he was a ninja. He knew he had the skills that he could do it, he doubted his prey had those same skills. She could probably fool townspeople and shinobi not specifically trained, but he doubted that she could fool him.

His daytime searching came up empty, but at least he was feeling better. A couple of meals and just walking around a town at a meander was definitely helping him get his strength back. That night he headed back to the same bar as the night before. He acted out the part of just being out an enjoying his night. He kept his senses up for anyone with unusual chakra though.

Around eleven at night he saw a young woman walk in. Her chakra systems were too controlled to not have training. He kept an eye on her as a potential. The other two potentials that had come in both turned out to not be who he was looking for. One had been a mist academy drop out and the other was a medic at the local hospital who had some chakra training.

He watched the woman for a while. She walked up to the bar, grabbed a drink, and was almost instantly being chatted to by some guy that she obviously didn't have any interest in. She had short black hair and was wearing jeans and a red turtleneck. She didn't look out of place, but she didn't exactly fit either. Her clothing seemed a little bit warm considering the rest of the patrons of the bar. This time of year, sound was warmer than wave though, it could be a sign she was the one he was looking for.

He made his way over to the bar to get another drink, making sure he got it close to where she was standing. As he waited for his drink, he listened carefully to her mannerism and accent. Few shinobi learned how to fully disguise those things. He heard enough words and phrases to make him pretty sure he had found her. He investigated her chakra signature a little more closely. She definitely was a ninja; she was much more organized feeling than the other two had been.

He decided to try to talk to her. He got the bartender's attention and handed him some money. He then got up and walked over to the woman, giving her his best friendly smile. He then spoke to the man trying to pick her up, "Hey, the bartender wanted me to tell you that some chick wanted to buy you a drink."

The drunken man thanked Iruka and walked over to the bar where the bartended gave him a drink and gestured over to the very crowded other side of the bar. The woman looked at Iruka, "Thank You."

He smiled back, "No problem. He didn't seem like he was getting the hint. My name's Shouhei. Can I get you a drink?"

She smiled, "Thank you Shouhei-san. I am Kaeda." They chatted for a while and Iruka made sure to mention some of his travels. He was careful not to act like a ninja. He left his sides undefended, allowed himself to be surprised by people jostling by him to get to the bar. He flirted with her, using his chocolate brown eyes to their fullest uses. As she relaxed and they ended up sitting together at a table drinking, he slowly reached out with his chakra and gently tried to calm hers. It was a risky move, but if it worked, his mission would almost be assured a success.

As he talked about his travels and she relaxed around him, part from the alcohol and part from his chakra influence, she started to comment on some of the towns he mentioned. All the towns she had been to were between here and sound. He had his target for sure. Unfortunately, it was approaching closing time and he wasn't in a position yet where he knew he could get her back to his room. He offered to walk her home, and she accepted. He left her at the front of her apartment on the outskirts of town with a promise to pick her up there at six the next evening for dinner.

He walked back to his room and lay down. He fell asleep, his mind wandering back to Konoha. Why had he really gone to see Kakashi in the state he was in after that mission? He fell asleep, still pondering what his real feelings for Kakashi were.

When he woke up the next morning, he just stretched in the sunbeam falling across the bed. He didn't have anywhere to go until six and the many hours between now and then were more than enough for preparations. He decided to relax. A morning of relaxing in the sun coming through the window soon turned to thinking of relaxing in bed with Kakashi. Why was it when he was tired and vulnerable he wanted to be near the jônin?

Eventually he got up and started to get everything ready for that night. He unlocked the window and left it just enough ajar that it would be easy to get in through the window. He changed the piercing in his lower lip for one containing a knock out agent.

He left the rest of the drugs he had brought in his pack, if this didn't work then he would take out the heavier hitters. He did a few katas, had a nice lunch at a little café a few blocks away. By the time he had to leave to pick the woman up, he was feeling significantly better. He was probably getting more rest on this mission than he would have gotten back in the village – of course, this had every possibility of getting screwed up on a seconds notice.

He made his way to the woman's apartment. From what she said in casual conversation the night before she had been here for nearly two months and was working at a small grocery store. He knocked on her door just a few minutes before six o'clock. She was ready and wearing jeans and a sweater – definitely wasn't used to the colder climate of wave.

She seemed suspicious over dinner so Iruka kept it very simple. He kept his cover story as close to the truth as possible, even telling stories about his little brother 'Naru' who got in trouble at school all the time. She seemed more relaxed by the time dinner was over, but at the same time, something was defiantly bothering her. Iruka was pretty sure whatever that 'something' was that it wasn't him though.

He played it safe and simply walked her to her apartment before heading back to his room. She evidently had to work early the next day, but she agreed to another dinner, but she insisted on cooking it herself. Iruka decided he needed to figure out her work schedule, things were going too slowly for his liking. He wanted to get this done, and get out of there. The only problem was that he didn't know if this woman had a cursed seal and if he would be able to beat her in a fight. He had to keep playing it safe. He was regretting not having any backup.

He paced around his room as he thought. This was going on too long. He had to finish this so he could get out of there and get back to Konoha. He didn't want to be away from Kakashi for this long, especially on a stupid mission that wasn't keeping him occupied constantly. He left the room to go scout out some bars, at least he could try to pick up any gossip and hopefully return to Ibiki with some useful information.

When the bars closed, he made his way through the darkened town. He hadn't learned anything exceedingly useful but any information could potentially be useful. He carefully made his way to the grocery store his target worked in and slipped in through a window. He carefully searched for the employee schedule. After memorizing his target's schedule, he slipped out of the store and headed back to his room. He needed to think of a plan.

The next day he carefully went through his med kit. He took out several of the knock out agents while thinking of the best way to do things. One he carefully put into a capsule and slid it carefully into a pocket that had been carved into the muscle of his tongue. He placed a second drug into the piecing on his lower lip. He carefully put a granular sedative under the nails of his right hand. He'd have to be careful, but he always was.

The knock out agent under his tongue would be the best one, but it had a taste to it. It also had an antidote that could be taken several hours before exposure. An hour before dinner, he started chain smoking. The taste of cigarettes would hide the taste of the drug. He downed a vial of antidote and checked out of his room. This was it; he wouldn't need to come back here.

He carried his pack towards the building she lived in before stashing it in a dumpster a few alleys away from her place. He walked up to her apartment, a bottle of sake in his hands. Sake wasn't his first choice for covering up the taste of drugs, but combined with the cigarettes it should more than suffice.

Her apartment was simple and obviously, she hadn't been there long. Most of the décor screamed of lands farther north than wave, she wasn't doing a very good job of hiding. Bringing the bottle of sake got him a short kiss and soon they were eating dinner and laughing. She seemed much more relaxed on her own turf. Her cooking was good, although that too screamed of lands farther north. Finally, he made his move, gently kissing her. His hands wrapped into her short black hair as he pulled her closer. He felt her relax in his arms as he deepened his kiss.

Iruka was an excellent kisser. He knew when to rush and when to take things slow. Gently he sucked on her lower lip, using the freedom of his mouth to break open the capsule of liquid under his tongue. The taste wasn't noticeable with the sake and cigarettes and he deepened his kiss with her, his tongue seeking entrance to her mouth as he wrapped an arm around her waist. After a minute of deeply kissing her, he backed off and broke the kiss, smiling at her.

Her eyes were half lidded and she was looking very relaxed. He knew the drug would take a good five minutes to kick in and it wasn't the strongest of knock out drugs in his arsenal. He grabbed her cup of sake and making sure to get his fingertips in it when she wasn't watching; he held it up to her lips as she took a sip. He kissed her on the neck, distracting her from the feeling of being knocked out. Carefully he lowered the unconscious body to the floor. He tossed the drugged sake and then proceeded to clean up the remains of dinner.

She should be unconscious for at least six hours so he had plenty of time. He searched her apartment, grabbing anything that seemed like it might be information and shoved it all into a canvas bag. He packed clothes for her as well. Carrying her, it would be about a three-day trip back to Konoha if he hurried, and he did intend on hurrying. He waited until the sunset and then he made his way out under cover of darkness. He had her over his one shoulder and her bag over the other. He grabbed his pack from the dumpster before putting on both packs and then holding her against his chest. He then took off, needing to put as much distance between this village and himself by the time he had to re-drug her.

He reached Konoha without any unexpected difficulty. He replaced his chuunin uniform a few miles out incase they ran into any patrols. When he came strolling in through the south gate with a prisoner in broad daylight, he just waved to the guards. He made his way to the headquarters of Torture and Interrogation before handing over the unconscious woman to Ibiki. As they waited for her to wake up in a cell, they went though all the things he had grabbed form her apartment. Most of the data was out of date, but it was at least useful for deciding which of their information gathering sources were reliable and which weren't.

Finally, when the woman woke up, Ibiki and Iruka went into their good interrogator/bad interrogator routine that normally worked very well. The after affects of the drugs she was on didn't hurt either, nor the drugs Ibiki had given the woman to make questioning her easier. A few hours of questioning and the woman collapsed. They had obtained a lot of information though, especially about some elite fighters that Orochimaru had. Four of the five had been the ones holding the barrier in place when the third had died after the chuunin exams. The fifth member of that group was evidently the most powerful, but according to the woman, there were rumors that he was ill and that was why he didn't take part in the attack.

Iruka and Ibiki were sitting in Ibiki's office when Genma came rushing in without knocking. Ibiki just looked at the jônin with a raised eyebrow, "Jiraiya-sama brought back Tsunade-sama, and she's agreed to be the fifth Hokage."

Iruka smiled and stood up, "If you'll excuse me, I have a place to be."

Ibiki just waved him off, the scared torture specialist even letting a hint of a smile grace his face.

Iruka ran off, not even caring if the two jônin were joking about him acting lovesick. In the time he had been away from the village on his mission, and the days of returning to Konoha, he had realized something. He was falling in love.

_-------------------- Notes ------------------------_

_Teaser - Next chapter - what will Iruka do to prove to Kakashi how much he is falling in love?_

_Please review, I would love to know what people are thinking of this. Updates should be back on their every other day or so schedule. I still plan to have this done by the end of the month. Sorry this update was a day late_


	22. Chapter 22

_Disclaimer – If I owned Naruto, there would be a swimsuit issue (every single week)._

_Spoilers – This contains spoilers for the anime and manga. I am not sure of the exact chapters and episode numbers, but it is well beyond what Cartoon network is showing. It is also beyond what is released by VIZ in English manga. Specifically Chapter 172 page 18. how much story can I shove between the panels of page 18? A lot :)_

_This has been a broadcast of the scribbles alert system, we now return you to your regularly scheduled reading_

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Water Runs Red – Chapter 22 (edited for Fan Fiction dot net - see note at bottom)

He ran as fast as he could through the hallways connecting the Torture and Interrogation building to the Administrative building and that in turn to the exit just across from the hospital. He ran across the area between the two buildings before landing at the window to Kakashi's hospital room. They had moved him there while Iruka was away on his mission. He saw Kakashi sitting up in bed and Gai was there talking to a woman with blonde hair and big breasts. He opened the window and slipped into the room just as Gai was saying, "—please take a look at my student Lee."

Kakashi looked over to Iruka. Kakashi was dressed in only a black turtleneck with a built in mask. His forehead protector wasn't on and he had obviously just been woken up.

Gai stammered, "Iruka-sensei, your youthful vigor has returned. I would love to ask about your recent mission but Tsunade-sama must see my beloved student."

Iruka blushed and giggled as he bowed low to Tsunade, "Thank you Tsunade-sama for healing Kakashi-kun. It is an honor to meet you, but I have some urgent unfinished business with Kakashi-san that needs to be dealt with." He glanced over at Kakashi who definitely looked like this was way to confusing for this soon after being woken up from a several day coma. Tsunade looked a little confused that a blushing and giggling chuunin had entered the room via a window.

Before Gai could pull Tsunade from the room to go and look at Lee, Iruka was on Kakashi's bed with a knee on either side of the man's hips. Using his hands to cover as much of Kakashi's face as possible, he closed his eyes and pulled the mask down to below Kakashi's mouth. He then promptly hid the center portion of Kakashi's face with his own head as he kissed him.

Completely ignoring everyone else in the room, Iruka held Kakashi's face in the palms of his hands and lightly kissed the other man's lips. Gently he brushed them with his own lips, parting his mouth to let his tongue slide alone the depression between the jônin's upper and lower lips. As Kakashi gasped, Iruka slid his tongue into Kakashi's mouth, as he tasted his boyfriend.

Kakashi wrapped his arms around Iruka, pulling him tight to him as he returned the kiss. He may have just been woken up, but he had Iruka on his lap kissing him and he did have good reflexes -- he was after all a jônin. He pulled the chuunin into him, allowing the other man full access to his mouth. After being unconscious for so many days, his mouth and throat were dry, but the sweetness and moisture of the other man's mouth were better than any liquid he could think of. Kakashi ran his tongue along the underside of Iruka's tongue.

Iruka whimpered slightly and then nipped at Kakashi's lower lip before pulling back and breaking the kiss. He smiled, his eyes still closed as he replaced the mask covering Kakashi's face. He heard someone clearing their throat behind him and turned to look at Tsunade and Gai.

Tsunade had an eyebrow raised and a distinct pink across her cheeks. Gai was just staring, mouth open and silent. Tsunade spoke with a smirk, "Make sure the brat gets some rest. He can be checked out in a few hours"

Iruka nodded and bowed his head, his cheeks flushed. Somehow, the fact he was kissing his boyfriend in front of the new Hokage hadn't managed to connect in his mind until this moment, "Yes, of course. He needs rest." He smiled as Tsunade lead Gai from the room and then turned back to Kakashi, his cheeks red.

"Umm, good morning?" Kakashi looked more than a little dazed.

Iruka gently kissed him on the forehead, still sitting on him. "Can I get you anything?"

Kakashi wrapped his arms around Iruka, "That was a much nicer wakeup than the one Tsunade gave me."

Iruka sighed as he leaned into Kakashi, "I'd hope so. I wouldn't want to have to get jealous with a Sennin. She'd kick my ass."

Kakashi raised an eyebrow; he was keeping his Sharingan eye closed by keeping on eye closed. "Jealous?"

Iruka smiled and took off his own forehead protector and carefully placed it over Kakashi's red eye. "Uh, huh. I realized something." He leaned forward and kissed Kakashi's nose right above the mask, "I'm falling in love with you."

Kakashi's visible eye widened as Iruka closed his eyes again and pulled the mask back down. Iruka kissed the older man again, his lips forceful and warm against the cooler lips of the jônin. Iruka nipped at Kakashi's upper lip before pulling back again.

A nurse lightly tapped on the door before walking in. When she entered, Iruka crawled off the bed. She smiled and looked down at the ground, a very cute gesture, when she realized she had interrupted something.

"Hatake-san, I have some medicine for you. Tsunade-sama said you can leave in four hours as long as all the tests come back clear." She walked over to Kakashi and handed him some pills and a glass of water. "Tsunade-sama specified you have to be checked out by someone who will be responsible for taking care of you until you are feeling better."

Iruka smiled at the nurse, "I'll check him out." He tried to keep the smirk off his face at how he phrased that. "Tsunade-sama already had me promise to make sure he rested."

The nurse smiled as she checked Kakashi's vitals, "I want to see how he can handle solid food while he is still here, but assuming everything comes back fine, you can get him out of here at five."

The door flew open and an orange blur burst into the room, "Baka-sensei! Old lady Tsunade said you were awake!"

Iruka, with a practiced ease acquired through teaching slapped the boy upside the head. "Naruto. First, you should knock when entering a room. Second, do not call Tsunade-sama that. Third, don't yell in a hospital." He evidently was not fazed by the fact he was yelling just as loud as the blond boy had been.

"Yesh!" Naruto held a hand to his head, "Iruka-sensei what are you doing here? Will you buy me ramen?"

Iruka sighed, "I am visiting Kakashi-sensei." He looked over at the wounded puppy-dog look that Kakashi was giving him (even one-eyed it was pitiful). "I think your sensei needs some rest and for the nice nurse to get him some food. In the meantime, I can take you to get ramen. First I have to tell Kakashi-sensei something in private, wait for me at the elevator."

The blond boy nodded and ran out of the room nearly as fast as he ran into it. Iruka grabbed Kakashi's forehead protector from the nightstand and put it on since Kakashi was wearing his, and then leaned over to whisper into the jônin's ear. "I promise I'll take very good care of you tonight." Then smiling, he left the room, simply saying he'd be back around five.

Iruka left and took Naruto to the ramen stand and bought the boy enough bowls of ramen that if he only had his teacher's salary, he'd be in trouble. After a time, he waved goodbye to the boy and walked back to the torture and interrogation headquarters. It was still too early to check out Kakashi, but he wanted to make sure he wouldn't be interrupted this time.

He knocked on Ibiki's door and walked in when the man called out for him to enter. Ibiki nodded at Iruka and gestured for the chair, "I was hoping you'd show up and I wouldn't have to track you down."

Iruka smirked, "You mean have Genma track me down."

Ibiki shrugged and smirked, "Same difference. I talked to Tsunade-sama and she wants individual meetings with each of the squad tonight." He raised an eyebrow as Iruka frowned at the news, "I thought you'd appreciate the recognition? The four of you are being talked to before the jônin even. The only ones before you are the ANBU captains. Just the captains."

Iruka nodded, "I do, I just was hoping for one night off. What time was she thinking?"

Ibiki leaned back in his chair, "She was going to start at eight and figured an hour per. She has the third's summoning scroll for you guys so she'll request you individually."

Iruka nodded, "Can I request last?"

"I don't see why not, can I ask why?"

"Kakashi is getting checked out of the hospital in a few hours and I wanted a chance to get him situated." He tried smiling at Ibiki, knowing full well the man was immune to it. The jônin didn't look like he was buying that excuse at all. "OK, the truth. Every damn time I have a date with Kakashi there is an interruption. It makes figuring out things damn near impossible, so if I simply had a six hour window where I was reasonably sure we could figure things out, I'd be able to know what the hell I am thinking."

"So, you are romantically involved with Hatake." Ibiki didn't seem surprised. Iruka running off to the man's apartment in his half-collapsed state probably was more than enough of a hint.

"Trying to be, but this undercover thing is hell on the social life. I figure with the academy closed for a bit, I might have half a chance."

Ibiki shook his head, "I'll make sure Tsunade-sama calls you last. I'll also be discrete about the reason."

Iruka tried not to smile, "Ibiki-san, umm, she …." He scratched the back of his head as he looked around the room, trying to think of how to phrase this. "I may have lacked some discretion in front of her."

"Sometimes I think I stay at this job just for the entertainment value of you guys. What did you do?"

Iruka smiled, "We get so much entertainment out of you too." He laughed a bit, "I might have accidentally burst into Kakashi's hospital room and kind of kissed him before my brain completely realized who was in the room."

Ibiki laughed, one of his rare true laughs, "You kissed Kakashi in front of Tsunade-sama?"

Iruka nodded, "And Gai-sensei was there too."

"I wish I had installed a camera in that room."

"To see Tsunade-sama's reaction or just for the inner pervert?"

"Yeah yeah yeah, get out of here and go get that boyfriend of yours out of the hospital. I can't give you a lot of time off from missions though, but I'll try to not give you anything tomorrow."

"Thank you" With that Iruka got up and left to go and get Kakashi.

When Iruka got to the hospital, the same nurse was on duty. She smiled at Iruka as he walked in, "I'll bring the papers to check out Hatake-san."

"Thank you very much." He returned the smile and continued to Kakashi's room. The jônin was sitting up in bed in his uniform without the vest, looking a little better than he had been. He still looked exhausted. "Hey, sexy."

Kakashi looked up at the unfamiliar pet name and raised his visible eyebrow. "Good mood?"

Iruka sat on the edge of the bed and leaned into him, "Wonderful mood. I'm getting you out of here and I have the rest of the day off! Well, I have a meeting at midnight or so, but until then I have the day off. The academy is closed and I finished my last mission in a third the allotted time."

He was helping Kakashi into his jônin vest, with probably a little more hands on of an approach than was actually needed when the nurse walked in with the paperwork. She smiled at them, "I brought the paperwork Umino-san."

He smiled and took it from her and started to fill it out, "Thank you very much, is there anything I should know about his condition?"

She kept smiling at them as she explained, "He needs to get a lot of rest and to eat simple foods, nothing too spicy. Soups or lightly grilled foods would be best. Other than that, no real restrictions. Physical activity should be limited to what he feels up to."

Iruka thanked the nurse again and then helped Kakashi out of bed. He didn't say anything when Kakashi walked out of the hospital under his own power without any help; he just walked next to him. When they reached the street, Kakashi finally spoke, "So, I take it your behavior means I can try for another date?"

Iruka smiled, "My behavior means that you don't have to try. I told Ibiki I needed some time off because I was checking my boyfriend out of the hospital."

"Really?" Kakashi chuckled, "So you're going to be taking care of me tonight?"

"I promised I would take very good care of you." Iruka didn't bother to hide any innuendo from his statement.

"You really are in a good mood today."

"Nothing can destroy …" Iruka's smile abruptly fell as he saw two figures approaching. "Fuck. I should know better than to tempt fate."

Kakashi turned to look at Asuma and Kurenai walking towards them, "Yo."

Asuma and Kurenai walked up to them, Kurenai spoke first, "Just woke up and already on a date, Kakashi?"

Kakashi scratched the back of his neck and gave her his happy eye curved smile, "Yes."

Kurenai seemed surprised by his agreement, but Asuma butted into the conversation, "Have you had anything to eat yet? We were hoping to talk with Iruka-sensei, but we could all go someplace and get a bite to eat?"

Kakashi looked at Iruka, and seeing no objections, he answered, "Just some horrible hospital food. I think whoever makes the ration bars makes the hospital food."

Iruka and Asuma both laughed at that and even Kurenai managed to smile. Soon they were all at a table at a small restaurant not far from Kakashi's house. It only took a few glances at the menu for Kakashi to figure out what he could order that wouldn't net him a kick under the table from Iruka and soon they were waiting for food to arrive as they sat in a relatively secluded area of the restaurant.

Asuma finally broke the silence, "Iruka, we want to hear your side of the story about the mission where Kurenai's old student was injured."

Kurenai scowled into her drink; obviously, she already thought she knew everything about how that mission went. Kakashi seemed genuinely curious.

Iruka moved his water glass a bit, as he watched the liquid move in a lazy circle. "It was a mission to grass country. There was a group of missing nin who had started running the area's more illegitimate businesses a few years before. Keiko was assigned to be my partner. There were three teams of two that were sent in.

"We found where one of the missing nin often went and per instructions were to try and find the rest of them using him. Unfortunately, luck wasn't with us. I had previously interacted with the guy. I made the mistake of telling that to Keiko. She argued that since there was a good chance I would be recognized that she should be the one to go in. I was the senior member and should have been the one doing the infiltrating.

"Our equipment was less reliable then, we've worked out a lot of the kinks in it since then. The nature of the work means we can't use the standard radio sets and modifying them never worked well enough to be able to really hide them. So anything as small as the transmit …" He paused as the waitress brought everyone's food to them. Once she was gone, He reached a hand under his uniform and took out his navel piercing. It looked like a simple barbell piercing, but Kakashi already knew it wasn't

"This is one of the transmitters." He placed it down on the table, "Keiko went undercover and I stayed behind to monitor, Everything seemed to be going well. They were in a public park in the town and had been relatively quiet, so when there wasn't any conversation for several minutes I didn't think too much of it. When things were quiet for another five minutes I tried jacking up the volume of the receiver. The transmitter was working and I could clearly hear the sounds of the park, but I couldn't hear anything else."

He spun one end of the transceiver and the round ball easily fell off. "Her transmitter came apart and it was lying in the park. She never even realized it happened. I've had it happen; it's hard to notice. By the time I tracked her down I was too late to prevent what happened. Luckily, his guard was down and I managed to kill him. Keiko was right about it being too dangerous for me to go in. When the poison was kicking in to kill him, he recognized me. Had I gone in, he would have killed me before anyone had a chance to do anything."

He looked over at Kurenai, "I'm sorry for what happened, but I did the best I could under the circumstances."

She nodded, "I'm sorry, too." She looked over to Kakashi, "Kakashi, I should have had a little more faith in your judgment."

The rest of conversation over dinner centered on more currant events. Asuma leaned back in his chair, "I hear you brought in a live missing-nin this morning, Iruka?"

Kakashi raised an eyebrow and looked at the chuunin, "Really?"

Iruka smiled and shrugged, "She wasn't nearly as high ranking as we were hoping for. Oh well, a sound missing-nin is still a sound missing-nin."

Kurenai raised an eyebrow, "Sound?"

Iruka shrugged, "I probably shouldn't have said that, but from her appearance it was pretty obvious, but maybe the gate guards didn't pick up on that. There was no way I was going to hide in the forest for twelve hours waiting for the sun to set and make my way in all secret."

Asuma took out a cigarette and lit it, "Gai had said that you had barely regained consciousness at Kakashi's before Ibiki was there giving you a mission."

Iruka nodded, ignoring the surprised look from Kakashi, "We're short handed; everyone has to try and pull as many missions as they are able to."

Asuma smiled, "Kakashi, I bet no one told you that this idiot almost killed himself running off to see your unconscious self instead of going to get medical attention?"

"No, no one mentioned that. You were injured?" He looked at Iruka.

The chuunin tried to brush it off, "Oh it was nothing." When Asuma snorted at that, he knew no one was going to buy the 'it was nothing' thing. "Well, I was sent off on a mission to grass the morning of the day you were attacked by Itachi. Unfortunately, I had depleted all my chakra shortly before that so I had probably taken a little too much chakra powder for it to be considered completely safe."

Asuma shook his head, "He really is modest." When Kakashi looked over at him, the gruff man continued, "Kurenai and I should head off, and unless I am mistaken, you should be resting."

Iruka and Kakashi left the other two jônin as Iruka continued to lead Kakashi to the man's apartment. He leaned slightly against the taller man, "Well at least I don't think your friends will be shooting me glares from across every room any more."

Kakashi smiled, "I'm glad. You shouldn't be glared at, but I won't let their opinions influence who I date anyways." He looked over at Iruka as they entered the apartment. "So what brought about your change of heart, not that I'm complaining?" Once Kakashi was inside the apartment, he leaned over, pulling down his mask, to kiss Iruka's lips before replacing the mask.

"When I realized I cared enough about you that I came here when I was totally out of my mind going through withdrawal from Chakra powder. Life's too short to lie to yourself about your feelings. I decided I really am falling in love with you, so I am going to do my best to get you."

Kakashi smiled, "I'm not running away, so I should be very easy to catch."

Iruka was breathing heavy as he walked over to Kakashi. "Kakashi, I want you…"

Suddenly, Iruka was in Kakashi's arms, the jônin reached out to hold the younger man without thinking. Iruka has the mask down and was pressing Kakashi back to the wall with the sheer force of his kisses. His motions were almost desperate, as he tasted the other man's lips, forcing his tongue into his mouth.

Iruka unfastened Kakashi's vest, not even bothering to remove it before he started to tug at the man's shirt. The vest was keeping the shirt on though, so Iruka quickly unfastened Kakashi's pants.

------- This has been edited from the original for full version see notes at bottom -----

Kakashi took a gasping breath, "Iruka ... slow down." He swallowed as suddenly Iruka dropped to his knees in front of him, pulling his pants down after spending all of five seconds undoing his weapons pouch. A low moan escaped his lips as he placed his fingers on the chuunin's hair, undoing the hair band and forehead protector before entwining his fingers into the brown locks.

The man was amazing. All the noises the younger man made were incredible. In the after glow of their lovemaking, Kakashi held his lover as the man snuggled into him, completely spent. The last words Kakashi heard before drifting to sleep in his lover's arms were the other man whispering, "I love you."

_-------------------- Notes ------------------------_

_For the full version it's on my live journal account (remove the spaces)_

_Scribblesitm . livejournal . com / 2049 . html_

_How this fits in the Manga – ch 172, page 18. Panel 5 is the events that happen right before/ as Iruka enteres the room. Tsunade leaves and the events on page 19 begin, BUT we miss a very long examination of Lee since that's boring and it wasn't drawn, THUS the reason the 6th Panel on page 18 shows Naruto with Iruka. _

_Please review, I would love to know what people are thinking of this. Updates should be back on their every other day or so schedule. I still plan to have this done by the end of the month. _


	23. Chapter 23

_Disclaimer – If I owned Naruto, there would be a swimsuit issue._

_Spoilers – This contains spoilers for the anime and manga. I am not sure of the exact chapters and episode numbers, but it is well beyond what Cartoon network is showing. It is also beyond what is released by VIZ in English manga. Specifically Chapter 172 _

_This has been a broadcast of the scribbles alert system, we now return you to your regularly scheduled reading_

------------------------- 23 -------------------------

Water Runs Red – Chapter 23

Iruka held the sleeping Kakashi, letting himself also drift into a light sleep. The jônin needed his sleep and Iruka was not going to risk moving and waking the man up. He had about two hours before he had to start getting ready to see Tsunade so a little rest would be a good idea anyways.

He watched his sleeping lover's face. The face that was hidden from so much of the world was lying there in his arms. Kakashi looked perfect. Not perfect in some romance novel way, the man was human after all. He needed to shave, but Iruka didn't mind the scratchiness of the stubble. He had a few old scars that were visible, nothing out of the ordinary for a shinobi. The feature that Iruka couldn't stop staring at was the man's lips. They were perfect. The slight crookedness of a nose that was broken one too many times only accented the perfection of those well-kissed lips. The little cut on one side where Iruka had bit too hard only made them more perfect.

He smiled as he snuggled into Kakashi. When the clock hit eleven, he didn't want to get out from under the comforter he had pulled over them. He knew he'd have to; he needed to grab a shower before gong and seeing the Hokage. If it were Ibiki, just lounging around the man's office, yawning, and stretching with a satisfied look on his face would be appropriate torture for making him get out of this bed. For the Hokage, he'd have to be a little nicer. Carefully, he got out of bed. He knew it would wake up Kakashi; those jônin had no ability to sleep through anything.

When the man woke up, Iruka kissed him on the forehead, "I have a meeting with the Hokage in a bit, and I need to grab a shower." When Kakashi just nodded and relaxed again in the bed, Iruka walked over to the bathroom. After his shower, he stepped out and rubbed the towel across the bathroom mirror. He took an inventory of how badly the jônin had marked him up. The bites and marks were already a deep purple color, showing distinctly against his tan skin. If his were this dark, he didn't want to think about how well what he did to Kakashi would stand out against that pale skin..

As he towel dried his hair and made a mental note to stash a hairdryer in Kakashi's bathroom, he tried to think of how best to show off his marks. He was going to meet the Hokage under his position in Ibiki's organization. He wasn't going as schoolteacher chuunin Umino Iruka; he was going as 'Faith', covert operative. The Hokage would have been given his covert file. The missions Ibiki sent them on were never recorded in their normal files, thus they couldn't be used as proof of ability for jônin level. They also were much harder to decipher since the reports only ever referred to people by their code names. In fact, unless one of the other three slipped, which was unlikely, the Hokage wouldn't even know who was coming to meet her.

He dumped out the contents of his pack in the bathroom so he could decide what to wear. He didn't want to go home when he probably had appropriate clothes somewhere in the bag. He set aside a bottle of sake he had bought while in wave. That would make a nice present for the Hokage. He quickly decided what he was going to wear and pulled on the clothes. He spent some time adjusting everything. He had on a pair of low waisted khaki cargo pants with the top of the grey camo print boxers just showing above the waist. He pulled on some brown boots and then slipped into a loose button-up white shirt. He stretched and looked at the time; he should be summoned in the next ten minutes.

He walked back into the bedroom with the bottle of sake. Kakashi was in bed still, but his one eye was open. "You're dressed up."

Iruka nodded, "Yeah, Have the meeting with the Hokage in a few. Can I get you anything before I go?"

Kakashi sat up, "You really do work for Ibiki."

"hmm?" Iruka sat down on the bed to lean over and kiss his lips.

"This has to fall under torture, dressing like that and then leaving."

"I'll be back though."

Kakashi reached out a finger and traced along Iruka's collarbone, "Sorry about this. I didn't mean to mark you up like that."

Iruka just kissed him, "It's fine. It actually helps me anyways. Makes it more believable that I can do my job. Besides, don't apologize until you get a look at yourself in the mirror."

Kakashi wrapped his arms around Iruka's shoulders and pulled him down onto the bed. In a low, husky voice he whispered, "Oh, attacking a jônin. Maybe you won't be able to escape in time for your meeting."

Iruka laughed as he found himself pinned under Kakashi. "Oh like those marks are going to hurt your reputation anyways. Do you want me to break the plumbing so that you are 'forced' to go use the ANBU showers?"

Kakashi chuckled as he kissed Iruka's neck, "I was thinking something more public like those baths Jiraiya always is spying on."

"Behave." Iruka stretched, exposing more of his neck to Kakashi, "Remember, I'm a little innocent chuunin school-teacher to most of this village. Wouldn't want them to think you're a big bad jônin preying on the innocent."

Kakashi laughed, "I don't seem to remember me being the one initiating things."

Iruka ran a hand over Kakashi's chest, "Maybe we can correct that after my meeting?" Iruka frowned, "I'm being summoned." With that, he stood up and looked down at Kakashi, "How do I look?"

"Like I shouldn't let you out of my bedroom."

"I was more going for just being ravished by my jônin boyfriend, but I think that's close enough." With a quick kiss to Kakashi's forehead, he climbed out the window and made his way to the administrative building.

Iruka flew across the rooftops, by the time he reached the administrative building his chakra was expertly concealed. When he was trying to be stealthy was probably the only time he was grateful for his low chakra levels. He landed on the small ledge outside the window of the Hokage's office. Tsunade was sitting inside with the lights on. He tapped on the window with the top of the sake bottle.

If Tsunade was surprised, she didn't show it. She raised an eyebrow and walked over to let him in. As he slipped into the room, he held out the sake bottle, "I believe someone once said something about 'Beware Shinobi bearing gifts'?"

"Faith, I presume?"

He smiled and handed over the Sake as he slipped his shirt off his shoulders to show the tattoo on his shoulder blade. Once she saw it, he then slipped the shirt back on and bowed to her, "Tsunade-sama, it is an honor to meet with you."

She smiled, "Perhaps you should say 'again'?"

He laughed, "Well, yes. I did at least have the grace to bring you a present for healing my--" He paused for the appropriate word, "Kakashi-san."

She gestured towards the seat across from her desk as she pulled out two cups and started pouring. Iruka raised an eyebrow at her pouring of the sake, but didn't say anything as she continued, "Your file shows you just got back to the village this morning, and you brought a sound missing-nin and helped Ibiki with the interrogation all before coming to the hospital this afternoon."

"When Genma reported to Ibiki that you had returned, I thought it would be prudent to check on Kakashi-san's condition. From your reaction earlier, I assume you are not so closed minded as to have a problem with that?" He smirked and sipped his sake, "Or a little drinking on the job if rumors are to be believed."

She put her sake down and arched her fingers together, "It is midnight and of course this meeting never officially happened. Shizune isn't here, thus I have a little freedom. As for my 'open-mindedness' I am happy to see the Hatake brat happy. He was always too serious when I knew him. However, shinobi do not make it a habit to telegraph their relationships, especially ones that villagers might … misunderstand"

"It is difficult to keep a secret in a village full of ninja. In my experience keeping things secrete doesn't work, it's why it is a well known fact amongst certain segments of the ninja population that Destiny, Salvation and I have the horrible habit of sneaking out and coming back wasted. There is even a rumor that Ibiki tends to 'talk' to us about it." He smirked, "The best I've ever managed in this place is keeping the details quiet. If you request it, I will be discrete with details concerning 'the Hatake brat'."

She nodded, "Ninja tend to be more accepting anyways, I was more thinking public behavior. Just keep it respectable."

He sipped at his drink again, "I can keep my public behavior perfect, his on the other hand …"

She grinned, "Oh the reading Jiraiya's books and his perpetual lateness?" When Iruka seemed surprised at that she grinned, "I've been gone for a long time, but I have not been completely cut off from the village."

"Which brings us to the reason you are speaking to covert-ops before the jônin. Your information about Konoha is either out of date or second hand" She seemed surprised that he had come to a conclusion from such little information, "A leader can not efficiently organize what she does not yet understand and it will take time to learn the nuances of the village. Even your assistant has been gone for a long time and is in the same position as you in regards to currant knowledge."

She nodded, "I have the files on all the shinobi of the village and have started to go through them."

Iruka nodded, "But the files only have so much information and don't give you a good idea of the character of the people. That explains why you'd meet with the ANBU captains first. Meeting with us second would imply you wanted to gain information, and gain it quickly."

She nodded, "My thought was to take on one or two of the advisors to the third since they would be acquainted with everything."

"They won't be able to tell you the information you need. His advisors were mostly account and diplomatic in nature. They knew little about the shinobi of the village. The third took care of that himself." He smiled, "If you wanted a recommendation from me, I would think grabbing two chuunin from the mission room and administrative offices would make the most sense. Except for Anko, the other three of us are Chuunin. Izumo and Kotetsu would be the best choices for being assistants. There is a lot of paper work to go with the job, and both of them are well known for being desk ninja."

"Desk ninja?" She sipped her sake with a raised eyebrow.

"A term of 'endearment' for us shinobi who are really just not suited for missions and thus have ended up at various administrative positions." He smiled since she knew how untrue that was since she had their covert reports in front of her.

She smiled, "So who exactly are you Iruka-sensei. I'd rather hear it from you than digging through your file, since I am sure there is nothing in there to come close to explaining why someone who is presumably an academy teacher is in a covert branch of the T&I and covered in bite marks that I assume came from the Hatake brat."

He laughed, "I didn't think you had everyone's dental records in front of you." He didn't deny where the bite marks had come from either. "Umino Iruka, Chuunin, current assignment Academy teacher and missions desk. 12 A rank missions, 74 B and a smattering of C and D. Chuunin of little notice by most. In reality, Code name Faith, assigned to the academy to keep track of the students affected by the demon fox attack. Also with the rest of my Genin team plus one, a non-standard covert unit working directly under Ibiki."

She nodded, "Ibiki explained that you had discovered a plot to attack the Kazekage, unfortunately we thought it would happen once he got here at the chuunin exam but it happened on the way here. Your unit also determined that there were strange troop movements between sound and sand and that they were being done in the tightest of security. I know the third disliked using your … services, but it seems to be a necessity."

"It is also necessary, as I am sure you can understand, that our work be kept in the strictest of confidence. That is the reason for separate files on us, just like a hunter nin would have. If our identities got out, we would be even more vulnerable from enemies."

She nodded, "I understand most of the time you are unarmed."

He nodded, "I can here with the same weapons at my disposal as I would have on a typical mission."

She raised an eyebrow, "And what weapons would those be?"

He moved the lip piercing with his tongue, "Poison." He turned the piercing in his navel, "Antidote. If it wasn't for surprise, we'd be dead." He paused, "Plus, our activities would not be approved of by the majority of the shinobi in the village and it is better if such things remain quiet."

"Interesting. Can I see?" She reached out a hand as she took the offered pieces of metal. "Very interesting. A tasteless poison, very concentrated. The other contains a double dose of the antidote. If you don't get the anti… ahh, I see, you take the first dose ahead of time." She frowned, "That's dangerous though, taking so many antidotes and exposing yourself to so much poison."

He nodded, "I know, we keep a list of what each of us can't use anymore."

Her eyes widened, "You do this often enough that you have a 'do not use' list?"

He nodded, "We've been at this for almost ten years."

She frowned, "How old were you when you started?"

"It was just after we were all arrested, I think we were all fifteen."

A/N Shameless plug for my one-shot 'that one night' 

"Arrested?"

"Little party became a big party and a certain Sennin got a little pissed at us and sicced the ANBU on us. But that's how we came to the attention of Torture and Interrogation."

"I am going to personally go over the chemicals you are using in your missions."

"If it would make you feel better, but we are using the best chemicals the ANBU have. We also have full access to the ANBU's medics. Obviously if we went to the normal hospital our patient reports would show some interesting things after missions."

She took another sip of her Sake, "That's at least good. You know you look a lot like your mother."

He smiled, "That's why I knew to bring sake to this. She always spoke kindly of you for how you supported her bid for jônin."

"They were trying to keep her away from it on technicalities. Saying she didn't have enough field experience."

"The 10A rank requirement is rather strict."

"But a two year duration S class should more than offset that."

Iruka refilled both glasses, "I doubt you brought me here to reminisce about the S-rank mission I was born on. Too bad that one doesn't go on my record as completing a mission."

Tsunade frowned, "That mission was very well thought out, I don't know if something similar can work for our problem with sound. The sand situation seems to be resolving without such measures."

He nodded, "Sound is more paranoid than Rock ever was. If I were trying to get information from Sound, I would go about it from the other side."

"The other side?"

"Take operatives who could blend in as being from wave and have them infiltrate from the thunder side instead of the fire side. Orochimaru can only have so many forces, and it would make sense to have developed some sort of alliance with thunder. The sound nin participating in the last chuunin exam did not attack any of the nin from the village hidden in the clouds after all. Sneaking through thunder country isn't too hard."

"I want all the files about previous missions to thunder on my desk tomorrow at 3pm." She then smiled, "You should get some rest. I gave the others the same instructions. Get some sleep; you'll be receiving a message that your meeting with me will be at 3pm tomorrow. I'm using the pretense of talking to everyone that mans the mission desk. I'll make sure the Hatake brat isn't requested too early either, now go make sure that idiot is resting."

He stood up and smiled, "Yes Hokage-sama." He bowed with exaggerated formality and left the way he came.

_-------------------- Notes ------------------------_

_Please review, I would love to know what people are thinking of this. Updates should be back on their every other day or so schedule. I still plan to have this done by the end of the month. Sorry this update was late, I did get the final arc of this story set in place though…_


	24. Chapter 24

_Disclaimer – If I owned Naruto, the ending with the girls and their cell phones would never ever ever been seen again._

_Spoilers – This contains spoilers for the anime and manga. Spoilers up to MANGA chapter 177(final spoiler warning will be for chapter 228 aka time skip)_

_This has been a broadcast of the scribbles alert system, we now return you to your regularly scheduled reading_

------------------------- 24 -------------------------

Water Runs Red – Chapter 24

Kakashi woke up as Iruka slipped his window open. He wasn't sure if the man had gotten that far into his bedroom because he cloaked his chakra that well, or if the sleeping part of Kakashi's mind had started to declare the chuunin 'not a threat'.

Iruka sat on the chair at the desk and unbuckled his boots, pulling them off. Next, he pulled off the white shirt and folded it up; placing it on the chair, he had been sitting on. He removed his pants and folded those, putting them on the chair. He took out the poison and placed it back in it's appropriate section of his pack.

Without a word, Iruka walked over to the bed, stripping down to naked and slid in next to Kakashi. Now fully awake, Kakashi wrapped an arm around the cooler body, pulling him against his own warmth. Kakashi pulled him closer, kissing the scar across the bridge of his nose.

Iruka squirmed, "Hey that tickles."

Kakashi laughed, "Sorry, I don't know how you manage to make a scar sexy and adorable at the same time."

Iruka did something that could best be described as purring, "Sexy and adorable?"

Grunting an affirmative as he pinned the other man under him. "Yeah, very sexy and very adorable." He kissed the scar again, running his hand down the other man's side until his palm rested against a tan hip.

Iruka brought his leg up, stroking the outside of Kakashi's thigh with the inside of his. "I'm supposed to make sure you rest. You're starting to make me think there is only one way to get you to sleep."

Kakashi's voice lowered. "Do you have any idea how sexy you are?"

Iruka smiled, "Want to show me?"

Kakashi pinned the younger man to the bed, his mouth searching out Iruka's warm lips as he pressed him down, tasting the sake on the other man. This is what he had wanted to do for a while now, and he wasn't going to let this opportunity be wasted.

Iruka tasted incredible, once he got past the bitter taste of the sake, he could appreciate the sweet taste of the chuunin. He kissed down the younger man's body, getting harder at the moaning caused by licking Iruka's neck. The tan flesh tasted incredible. Every kiss and touch the jônin did was reciprocated with soft breathy moans.

Kakashi took every opportunity to appreciate the play of the muscles of the man's throat under the tan skin and how his hair fell down without the ever-present ponytail. He sucked and nipped at the other man's collarbone, feeling the strong muscles of Iruka's chest. He traced the network of scars over the other man, licking and sucking each one as he kept Iruka pinned under him.

Kakashi couldn't take any more of the torture of having Iruka so close, but not having him. Every movement the man made under him promised pleasure ad Kakashi was getting impatient to take advantage of it. When Iruka tilted his head to whisper, "Take me" in Kakashi's ear, that was the end of patience. He took the younger man, reveling in the pants and moans. The whimpers and gasps Iruka made were even more intoxicating when he was the one causing them. Kakashi may be the embodiment of cool killer, but Iruka was the embodiment of lust. How his tan flesh rippled as his muscles moved under Kakashi. Finally, after what seemed a blissful eternity they collapsed into each other, vigorous exertion slipping into contented nipping and eventually into relaxed, messy, sleeping.

Kakashi slept soundly until his pillow started to move. His pillow moving on it's own was not a typical morning, so he opened his eye to look around. Iruka was swatting at his shoulder and trying to burrow his head under the actual pillow at the same time. Kakashi sat up and reached over to touch the tattoo on Iruka's back. As suspected, it felt warm to the touch.

Iruka opened one eye and looked up at Kakashi, "I hate being on this leash."

Trying not to laugh, Kakashi leaded against the wall, "Tell me about it." He shook his head, "Least they waited until noon."

Iruka stretched and nodded, "Yeah, but I spent three hours drinking with Tsunade. Its either Izumo or Genma doing the request, probably Izumo since he's being a dick about it. Can I get you anything before I head off?"

Kakashi shook his head, "I'm fine for a bit, I'm going to grab a shower after you then head back to bed."

Iruka padded off to wash the mess off of himself with a yawn. After grabbing a quick, quick shower, he made his way back to the bedroom to throw a uniform on. With an almost too distracting kiss with Kakashi as his lover made his way to the shower, Iruka took off to get to the Torture and Interrogation headquarters.

He strolled into the building and walked down the hall snacking on a skewer of dango. As he entered the normal meeting room, he saw Anko sitting on the table and Izumo in a chair reading a scroll. Kotetsu was going over a map. "Sorry I'm late, guys." He handed over the half-eaten stick of dango to Anko without her even having to say a word.

Izumo gestured at a stack of files, "Found your request this morning. We pulled everything we have done in thunder country. What's this about?"

Kotetsu nodded, "Yeah, Izumo and I have been relegated to assistants to the Hokage starting tomorrow. Evidently once the jônin interviews are over."

Iruka frowned and sat down, "I think we're going to be getting a mission soon, a deep mission. No one will think any thing of two administrative types having their mission room duties changed to assisting the new Hokage. You two know everyone in the village and have an understanding of the behind the scenes better than almost anyone else. Tsunade-sama has been away from the village for a long time, but, and I want to make this clear, it is our job to make sure she gets all the information she needs. I owe a family debt to that woman."

The other three became very serious at that. Kotetsu nodded, "We won't let you down."

Iruka smiled, "None of you guys have ever let me down. Anko, how are the new trainees coming along?"

Anko shook her head, "They still have manners that would make Izumo's grandmother happy. This batch is useless for anything other than infiltrating a court or withstanding a Hyuuga tea ceremony."

Kotetsu nodded, "I saw them earlier. We're going to need to get Ibiki to start recruiting younger, either that or at least tougher."

"Damn it." Iruka frowned, "I want you guys to start thinking of who we could add to the team for a deep undercover mission. I'm not sure which of us will go on it yet, don't know if it'll even happen. I want contingency plans for a trip to thunder via wave. I have a three pm with Tsunade today. I assume she has plans for me since she's scheduling my publicly known appointment so early in the cue. Any developments anyone wants to bring out in the open?"

Kotetsu frowned, "Maybe. I was hanging out at the gate last night, evidently one of the teams out patrolling thought they saw something. Their captain was a Hyuuga and he didn't see anything though, so not sure if it is something or just a sign of an over active imagination."

Anko nodded, "But I also heard the same type of thing from one of the Inuzuka, She thought she smelt something for a second, but wasn't sure what, said it didn't smell human but she hadn't smelt anything like that before and her dogs smelt it too. They investigated but didn't find anything."

Izumo rolled up the scroll, "Ibiki upped the number of patrols, just didn't tell anyone he was upping them and just assumed people wouldn't notice a slight increase."

Iruka nodded, "So there is something to it, but no one is bringing us in on it yet." He frowned, "OK, I need to bring those files to Tsunade at my 3PM. Just everyone keep your ears open to what people are saying and lets meet here for lunch tomorrow whenever Tsunade-sama gives you guys off."

Everyone nodded, before Anko interrupted, "Do you want the list of potentials before then?"

Iruka nodded, "Yeah can you track me down when it's done? If I'm not at my place I'll be at Kakashi's." He suddenly smiled, "Don't look at me like that guys."

Anko scooted over on the table to be closer to Iruka, "Ah, Ruka-kun, you know we just want the juicy details."

Izumo swatted at Anko, "What she means is we like seeing you happy."

Kotetsu chuckled, "Actually I think she means 'where can I install the video recorder'."

Iruka just sat back in his chair and laughed, "See, that's why I need you guys around. I thought she was trying to weasel out an invite."

Things degenerated down into picking on Anko and then picking on everyone else with a good natured humor of people that had been though way too much together to actually fight over anything. Iruka stood up, "I really have to go. I promised Tsunade to keep an eye on Kakashi."

With a smile he left, his bag now full of the reports for Tsunade. After a quick stop into the old archive records rooms of the administrative office, he left to walk towards Kakashi's. He had every intention of grabbing some food and heading back to see how Kakashi was when he spotted an all too familiar orange blur bounding down the street.

He ended up eating ramen with Naruto to distract him from the question about where he was last night when the boy had evidently gone to Iruka's apartment looking for him. He figured telling Naruto he slept at Kakashi's was not following Tsunade's request for discretion since Naruto might just tend to blab. It could have been a lot worse, he was hungry and buying the boy ramen made him happy. Having Iruka there listening to some story about him using Rasengan on a bunch of people meant a lot to the boy.

Part of Iruka felt bad for not paying more attention to Naruto during the meal, but he kept thinking about Kakashi. Finally, with a tussle of some blonde hair he was on his way back to Kakashi's apartment, stopping to pick up some soup and yakatori for the man.

He knocked on the door and then walked in humming to himself, stopping the instant he realized someone else was in there besides Kakashi. He blinked as he saw Gai leaning against the living room wall and Kakashi sitting on the couch.

Gai looked almost uncomfortable at seeing Iruka. Kakashi merely looked over at what Iruka was carrying, "Food?"

"Yeah, I ran into Naruto on the way home so I've eaten already, really I got way too much. Gai-sense, are you hungry?" Without hardly pausing for a breath he started to set the table and dump everything from take out containers into bowls and plates on the table, making sure to put two place settings, "I have to leave for my meeting in about few minutes, but I just wanted to get some of this dust off me first. Why don't you two eat? I'll be gone in a few minutes anyways. Gai-sense? Could you give Kakashi-san a hand?"

He darted off to the bedroom to gather up dirty clothes without another word to either of them, just a quick smile. He went to the bathroom carrying all the dirty clothes and sheets in the place with him. As Iruka had assumed, by asking Gai to help Kakashi it meant that Kakashi had been helped to the table and was being made to eat. Iruka threw laundry into the washer, conveniently located in the bathroom, and jumped in for a quick shower. After getting the dust from the archive rooms off of him, he put his uniform back on and made sure nothing that was dry clean only was in the washer before starting it.

He walked out of the bathroom about ten minutes later, cleaner and carrying a much smaller pack, since his normal pack and near everything in it was in the washing machine.

He stopped by the kitchen table where Gai had evidently already eaten and Kakashi was still poking at food. "Hey, Kashi, you have to eat. I am not going to face twenty questions from Tsunade-sama and admit to her I left without making sure you ate lunch."

Gai was still strangely silent as he watched Iruka move around the kitchen. Iruka gave him a smile, and then tried not to frown as Gai suddenly looked down at the table.

Iruka turned to Kakashi, "I'll be back in maybe an hour and move the laundry from the washer to the dryer, if you can just ignore the weapons pile there, I needed to wash my pack. I must have gotten something itchy on it somewhere in wave country."

Kakashi nodded, "I'm scheduled for four and Gai is at 4:30."

Gai looked at Iruka, "It is curious that you were scheduled amongst the jônin, is it possible you are trying to obtain the rank? Perhaps your youthful energy has been rekindled by the obvious passion of--"

"Or" Iruka cut him off, "Tsunade wants to take a break from all her serious appointments and see how uncomfortable she can make me recounting the most embarrassing moments of my life?"

Both Gai and Kakashi looked surprised at that. Finally, Kakashi asked, "Huh?"

Iruka shook his head, "She was my mother's sponsor for her jônin rank. Unfortunately that corresponded to a very clumsy portion of my childhood." He smiled, "Oh, I did have a few words with her earlier, and since you are here right now, Gai-sensei, this would be a good time to say something." He bowed into his most formal bow, "I am very sorry for my actions at the hospital earlier, and must apologize for any discomfort caused by my actions. I know I am in no position to ask for any favors from you, but I must ask for you to please treat what happened with discretion. Tsunade-sama was not very pleased with the … lack of modesty in my actions."

Gai stood up in a dramatic pose. "Of course I shall treat this delicate matter of love with the utmost of discretion. My eternal rival knows my loyalty has no bounds. I would…" At this point Gai's rant turned into a rather long proclamation of how loyal he would be and what increasingly implausible ways he could prove it. While the Gai was distracted by his speech, Iruka leaned over and kissed the exposed skin below Kakashi's right eye.

While Gai babbled on about such a display of tenderness, Iruka just smiled. He bowed to Gai again and thanked him for being such a loyal friend to Kakashi. With a smile on his face, he left the apartment. He wasn't sure that Gai had been uncomfortable about the relationship he was having with Kakashi, but the man was obviously much better about it now, so not too bad of an afternoon.

He quickly made his way to the administrative building so he wouldn't be late for his appointment. He bowed to the ANBU guards at the door to the Hokage's office and after giving his name was let in. He walked towards Tsunade and bowed deeply as he reached her, "Hokage-sama."

One the doors were shut and they were alone, she gestured to the chair. "Iruka, you have the files?" She just nodded as he handed them over. "Is the Hatake brat doing better?"

Iruka nodded, "He's pretty much slept since being let out of the hospital, but his appetite is returning and when I left to come here he was up and starting to walk around."

She nodded, "Good. I know he'll try to fake being better than he really is when I see him today, so I wanted a second opinion. I went over all the reports on Anko's cursed seal; we can't send her to spy on sound. Its too dangerous for her."

"I agree." Iruka didn't hesitate. Her saying it only saved him from having to try to convince her of that exact fact.

"I also don't only want to send a three person squad. There is too much chance you'll need to split up, so I'd rather send three units each with two people." She frowned, "I took your advice and Izumo and Kotetsu start here tomorrow."

He nodded, "I talked to them today. Our undercover situation is not too good in all honesty. The third was much more of an upfront type of person and didn't put as many resources into the covert…"

"Don't mince words, what are you meaning to say."

"We hardly have any shinobi with deep undercover experience anymore. If you want three teams, the best way as I see it is have Izumo, Kotetsu and I be the undercover half and pair us each with someone to be backup. Ko-kun normally does backup but he's damn good undercover as well."

She nodded, "I'll take that under advisement. I want a list of all the people who have ever done backup for you guys in the past. I'm not sure I'll only pull from that list though if I do take your suggestion." She looked over at him, "If it makes any difference, I don't see what your unit does as dishonorable. We're shinobi, lately people seem to forget that. Flashy jutsus and kick butt physical attacks don't do us any good if we don't know whom to attack. Plus, why use those means when more subtle means will work."

Iruka nodded, "I know. The four of us were talking today and … the progress of the latest girls interested in covert ops… Well, they aren't well suited for the less pretty side of the job."

She nodded, "Any suggestions?"

"Kotetsu thinks we need to start training younger. Our training started when we were fifteen after all. Waiting until they are eighteen seems late. We were going on missions when we were fifteen for Ibiki. Then again we pretty much showed up trained for this." He frowned, "It could also be that we need to aggressively recruit people we feel would adapt to it better."

"Such as?"

"I've started to identify students for Ibiki to keep an eye on. I have a pretty good idea of what makes a good covert op and what doesn't, the people that his advisors recommend are more the dress up fancy and send them to bat their eyes at some minor lord types."

She nodded, "I see. I want a list as well of the students you have recommended. I also want that list to state what about that person you think would make a good choice."

He nodded, "Yes, Tsunade-sama." He then started to go over the thunder country reports with her. Detailing out the villages they had been in before and what cover stories were used. Finally, it was almost four o'clock and he made his way out of the office. The academy was going to remain closed for at least another month, so his time was going to be devoted towards missions.

He took the opportunity of some down time to check on his apartment. He hadn't been back there in longer than he wanted to think about. He absently wandered around his apartment. It always seemed empty, but right now, it seemed even worse. Everything was covered with dust, the sound-sand attack on Konoha combined with being gone since then had made the apartment seem like no one had lived there in years. He let his apartment, not yet ready to check in on Kakashi. He had students to check up on, past and present.

Kakashi

Kakashi entered Tsunade's office. Gai had insisted on walking him there. He bowed as he entered, a slight smile on his lips under the mask, "Tsunade-sama."

She smiled, "Brat." She gestured to a seat, "You take it easy, I need you rested, we're short staffed."

He nodded, "When ever you need my services."

"What is the nature of your relationship with Umino Iruka?"

He paused for a moment before answering, "In all honesty, Hokage-sama, I am not exactly sure and am not exactly sure how to answer that."

She nodded, "Fair enough. I assume he already informed you that I want the both of you to use discretion. Personally, I don't care what you do in your off hours. You're both adults. However, I am not sure how the village would take rumors of their copy-nin dating a male schoolteacher. As I am sure you are aware, my position is tenuous, right now."

He nodded, "Anything I can do in service to Konoha, I will willingly do.

She smiled, "The fourth would have been happy to see you happy like that."

He looked up, raising his visible eyebrow.

"He always said you were too serious for such a young brat. Although having your boyfriend kiss you silly in the hospital with an audience is something that should be not repeated."

He nodded, "Iruka was worried about me. It won't happen again." He paused for a second before adding, "In public."

She rolled her eyes, "You haven't changed much I see. Although I was surprised you took on a team of genin."

"They are very persistent kids."

She laughed, "So I noticed. Now get yourself out of here and get some rest. If that boyfriend of yours is half as high maintenance as his mother, you've got your work cut out for you."

He stood, "Can I take that to mean neither of us will be summoned before morning?"

She nodded, "Unless something major comes up." She smiled to herself as Kakashi left her office.

When Kakashi returned to his apartment, it was empty. The clothes were in the dryer and not the washer and from the position of the dials; it appeared he had missed Iruka by fifteen minutes or less. He decided to relax on the couch for a while. It was hours later when he finally woke up. The sun had set and he heard a knock at the door.

He got up and opened it, letting revealing Iruka leaning in the doorway. The younger man smiled and held up some take out bags, "Hungry?"

Kakashi stepped back from the door and let him in. Dinner was pleasant, although Iruka seemed a little distracted. Afterwards he softly kissed Kakashi's forehead, "I'm going to grab a shower and change into something clean.

Iruka was still in the shower when there was another knock on the door, this time it was Anko. "Is Iruka here?"

Kakashi nodded and let her in, "He's grabbing a shower. Can I help you?"

She smiled, "Can I wait? I have a report he wanted."

He gestured at the couch, "Can I get you anything to drink?"

She shook her head, "No, thank you though."

Kakashi stopped and looked at her, bringing the forehead protector up to look at her with the Sharingan. He then tried to disperse an illusion. "What's going on? You're never polite."

She smirked, "I can be polite if I want to be and if you don't like than then fuck off."

He shook his head, "I've had too much weirdness today. A quiet Gai, a polite Anko, next thing Asuma will show up and proclaim he quit smoking or something."

Anko laughed, "I was just trying to be nice around Ruru-chan's new boyfriend. I didn't realize it would creep you out. Just think, the infamous copy-nin put on edge by a simple thank you."

"You've known Iruka for a long time."

"Since we were three, my mother used to watch him sometimes."

He nodded, "He's hard to figure out."

She nodded, "Layers. But you're the one always spouting off about underneath and all. Funny thing with Iruka though, once you get through all the layers, turns out whatever is down there is normally exactly what he says. None of us have the time or inclination to lie when we don't have to. We also don't tend to go around and be all subtle trying to figure out people."

He nodded, "So my best bet is just to ask him?"

She smiled, "Yep."

When the water turned off, Anko got up and walked over to the bathroom door, "Ruru-chan, I have the file you wanted sweetie."

Kakashi rolled his eyes at the overdone sweetness to Anko's request.

Iruka muttered something from the other side of the door and Anko faked an affronted look, "No! I am shocked. How could you think I'd be over here to install video cameras?" Kakashi quirked an eyebrow at that. "If I were doing anything like that I'd do it when no one is home."

Iruka muttered something else and Anko laughed, "No, don't worry; I didn't lay a hand on your boyfriend. Unless you want me to?"

Iruka walked out of the bathroom, wearing a paid of khaki's that were precariously held up by his hipbones. He grabbed the file from Anko and shook his head, "You are impossible, woman."

He flipped through some pages as he made his way over to the couch. His eyes flicked across the information as he quickly sorted the papers into two piles. "Nice work Anko. He handed one stack to her, Have Izumo do workups on these tomorrow. I don't think we'll need anything before noon at the earliest. The others, keep handy just in case, but these eight are out best bet."

She smiled, "Sure thing sweetness. I'll let you two have some quality time until then." She sauntered off laughing as she waved over her shoulder.

Iruka yawned and looked at Kakashi, "you should be resting."

"You look pretty tired." Kakashi leaned over, pulling down his mask to kiss Iruka softly.

The younger man purred as he took Kakashi's hands. "Bed. Now." He pulled the jônin to the bedroom. Soon their clothes were spread on the bedroom floor as Kakashi caused Iruka to make all those little noises he was growing to love. Finally, the lovers collapsed next to each other completely sated, even if Iruka was now a little sore.

_-------------------- Notes ------------------------_

_If anyone thinks this needs to be censored to be legal on FFN, please tell me. I think this one is OK without that._

_Sorry this chapter was a day late. The next one will probably be a late one too since I have a lot to work into the next chapter._

_Please review, I would love to know what people are thinking of this. The story is now in it's final third._


	25. Chapter 25

_Disclaimer – If I owned Naruto, there would be a swimsuit issue._

_Spoilers – This contains spoilers for the anime and manga. Spoilers up to MANGA chapter 177(final spoiler warning will be for chapter 228 aka time skip)_

_This has been a broadcast of the scribbles alert system, we now return you to your regularly scheduled reading_

------------------------- 25 -------------------------

Water Runs Red – Chapter 25

When Kakashi woke up the next morning, he was alone in bed. The spot next to him was cool, but the blankets that Iruka had been under still smelt like him. When he opened his eyes, the sun was well up and the clock confirmed he had slept in. He sat up in bed and saw a note on the nightstand. It simply said 'Damn leash'. Kakashi shook his head and laughed. That answered where Iruka was.

He stretched his arms and got out of bed. He had just pulled on the standard blue uniform when he heard a noise at the window. A small bird was incessantly pecking at the glass. Upon closer inspection, it was one of _those_ birds. Kakashi frowned and muttered to the bird, "I'll be right there."

The bird took off and flew away as Kakashi finished getting dressed. He made his way to the Hokage's office and was gestured in by her ANBU guard. She was flanked by not only Shizune, but also Izumo and Kotetsu, both of whom were obviously neck deep in backed up paperwork

Tsunade looked over at Kakashi as he walked in, "How are you feeling, brat?"

He didn't raise to the bait of being called 'brat' instead he just assumed his normal slouched posture, "Like my sick leave is about to end?"

She smiled, "Sorry about this, but I need this run to the council of the sand village. Top priority, top secrecy." She tossed him a scroll, "I need you to leave as soon as you can get packed."

He nodded and left with a bow. He knew they were short handed, but a runner mission was not expected – Unless it was more critical of a message than she had let on. He hurried back to his place; he wasn't sure where Iruka was, so his only option was to leave a note. He flipped over Iruka's note and placed it on his pillow. 'Mine too' and he signed the note with his little scarecrow face.

Iruka

When Iruka met up with the rest of his team for lunch, he found out Kakashi had been sent on a mission. He got no further details since Izumo spent the rest of the time trying to get Kotetsu to stop picking on their 'poor love sick comrade'.

No one had heard anything new about whatever had been spotted outside the village earlier, so with lunch over, Iruka headed off to check on his students. With classes out for such a long time, he wanted to make sure they were doing OK. Many of them had lost family in the attack and he wanted to make sure no one had been forgotten in the hustle of rebuilding the village.

It was four hours later when the last child had been talked to and taken out for a treat. Everyone in the village was so busy with the rebuilding, that it was easy to forget the quiet ones. As he walked back to the administrative building, he tried not to think how many of those quiet kids would end up on his recommendation list for Ibiki when they graduated. He was almost there when he was suddenly pounced on by an orange blur of energy.

He took the boy to the ramen stand, again. It wasn't as if he had a boyfriend at home right now anyways he could eat with. As Naruto was eating his noodles, Iruka started to think. Even the youngest of his students were helping in rebuilding the town. The genin were being asked to do missions that just a few months ago would have been done by an entire team, sure they were still D rank missions, but now solo D rank missions. "Naruto ..."

The boy looked up at him, "Hmmm?"

Iruka paused as he thought for a moment how the village had recovered so far in the month he had been gone, "You've grown a great deal since the time you wanted one of these forehead protectors." He repositioned his as the boy looked up at him.

Iruka couldn't hold back a smile as Naruto practically glowed from the praise, "Really? Really? You think so too?" Iruka didn't even have the heart to scold him for talking with his mouth full, "See the headband you gave me, it fits really well doesn't it!"

He tried not to smile, "Haha, what are you getting so arrogant about. You've still got a long way to go." It took all of his will power not to point out to the boy that he was now pouting like a toddler. He sighed, "Naruto." The seriousness of his voice couldn't be ignored, "This is a hard time for us leafs. Including our third Hokage, we lost many talented shinobi. We've lost nearly half our forces. However, we still need to complete all the missions requested of us just as before."

Naruto seemed confused, "Why's that? If we don't have the men, why can't we just refuse them?"

Iruka frowned; the younger ones who didn't remember how depleted their forces had been after the fox attack didn't understand, "We can't do that… See, we've been keeping the balance of power with other nations steady with out village's forces. If we were to turn down some of the missions, it's like telling the other nations that our village is getting weak. That's why even the ninja academy has been temporarily closed. Even I have to complete some field missions." He didn't add that those would be publicly acknowledged field missions instead of just his normal covert ones. "I heard Kakashi has already been assigned a mission although he's still recovering."

Naruto seemed to think for a moment, "hmmmm." The boy frowned, "I see … that sucks…"

Iruka's mouth partially fell open before he could stop himself. How Naruto could be so clueless sometimes, "Hey, you too. You've got that forehead protector now, so you have to do your share for the village too."

The boy nodded, "yep" going right back to eating, "But first things first, I need to feed my stomach!"

Iruka smiled despite himself, that's why he ate lunch with the boy he was always so … Naruto. He laughed, "You haven't changed." He reached out and tussled the boy's hair. "Good luck." With that, he headed off, leaving enough money for the boy's three bowls of ramen. (1)

Iruka was almost home when his tattoo started to tingle. He hurried to the Hokage's office. It was her summon he was feeling. The third had summoned them so rarely; it had seemed a waste of time for Izumo to have made the two summoning scrolls feel different. Now it was looking like that was going to pay off.

He made sure to have several files in his arms as he approached the ANBU guarded door. He bowed low, "ANBU-sama, I have files Hokage-sama wanted as soon as possible."

One of the ANBU slipped inside and then quickly returned, "Hokage-sama was expecting you." Iruka bowed again and walked in, doing his best 'frazzled desk ninja' impersonation.

When he got inside, Ibiki was standing next to Tsunade's desk. The interrogator gestured to the chair and Iruka sat without a word. Tsunade looked tired and Ibiki looked irritated. Iruka looked from one to the other, "Where do you need me to go?"

Tsunade nodded to Ibiki. The older man frowned before speaking, "This could be very dangerous. You're the only one of the four still in the village, but we aren't comfortable sending you alone on this. We need to decide who can be your backup."

Iruka nodded, "Who do you have in mind?" The fact that Ibiki hadn't just assigned someone, meant there wasn't anyone that had worked with him before available.

Tsunade looked up, "I don't want to send you out without someone of at least jônin level, preferably ANBU. Kakashi won't be back for several days, so I was going to assign Minamino Natsumi."

Iruka nodded, "That's fine." He vaguely knew here. She had been in one of the classes he taught for Ibiki about poisons. Her little brother was also one of his students. Nothing exciting about her, and no real potential for undercover work so he hadn't really considered her abilities.

Ibiki walked to the door and spoke to the two ANBU outside for a moment. He was followed back in by one of the two guards. The guard was obviously female and had long black hair. Ibiki gestured towards the other seat in front of the Hokage's desk, "You can remove your mask."

Iruka stood up as she walked in and bowed, "Minamino-san."

She looked confused as she looked at those assembled in the office. She nodded at Iruka, "Sensei." She took the scroll handed to her by Tsunade.

As she was reading, Ibiki started speaking. "'Iruka, you remember Kuroda Takumi?"

Iruka nodded, "Rock country drug lord. Wanted by three countries. Specializing in high end products like chakra powder as well as more typical drugs but has a reputation for being able to attain the unattainable. Clientele all over Rock and grass. Ties to several missing nin."

Natsumi looked over at him. A brief second of surprise showed on her face, but she quickly repressed the emotion from her face.

Ibiki nodded. "We just got information decoded that he is trafficking in some chemicals that are of a more medical nature."

Tsunade nodded, "There are very few things these chemicals can be used for and all signs point towards his client being affiliated with Orochimaru. We to get as much information as possible as soon as possible."

Iruka nodded, "We should leave in an hour?"

Ibiki nodded and looked towards Natsumi, "Can you be ready by then? This isn't ANBU, standard Jônin uniform but be prepared to dress in civilian clothes as well."

Iruka stood up facing the black haired Kunoichi, "I'll meet you five miles from the front gate. We should leave the office separately." When no one contradicted what he said, he walked out the front doors, slipping right back into desk-ninja mode.

An hour later, he was five miles down the road from the main gate of Konoha. Iruka stretched and cracked his back as he waited for Natsumi to show up. She landed on the road next to him looking very serious, "If we can make good time we should be to our destination by sundown tomorrow. If you need to rest, just tell me, sensei."

He just nodded and yawned, "No problem."

"You're tired?"

He shrugged, "Just got back from a mission day before yesterday, so yeah a little tired, but I'm fine. Oh, and please, it's Iruka. The sensei thing is making me feel ancient."

She raised an eyebrow at that, but didn't say anything before starting off towards rock country. Iruka followed without any problems. The sun set and they were still well within fire country. They kept going, although she occasionally looked over her shoulder, presumably to check on how Iruka was doing.

It was almost midnight when she stopped, "We should grab something to eat and take a quick rest."

Iruka nodded, "Sure." He sat down and pulled out a ration bar from his pack and started to eat it, his eyes closed as he relaxed. He wasn't sure how long she was going to make the 'break' and he wasn't in the mood to fight her about getting rest since she was obviously pulling the spot of team leader. It would be easier if he didn't disillusion her of that until they were near the target.

He opened his eyes to look at her as she cleared her throat. She was looking at him oddly, "What are you eating?"

He blinked and then yawned, his jaw cracking, then his neck cracking as he tilted his head, "Umm, a ration bar?"

"What are you doing with a ration bar from hidden mist?"

"Oh…" He mentally kicked himself for not thinking he'd be paired up with someone not used to working with him and more than likely suspicious after a traitor in leaf was found not even two months ago. "They taste better. Want one?"

She blinked, "How did you get your hands on that?" She was obviously suspicious and ready to attack.

Iruka just sighed; he was too tired to deal with this. "I just returned from there on a month long mission for Ibiki. Their food tastes better. I still have some of it and I haven't been home long enough to repack my bag anyways. I only get chuunin pay and it isn't enough to make me want to eat that reconstituted cardboard they have in the supply area back in Konoha."

She nodded, "I'm trying to figure out why they sent a chuunin on this mission. Normally something A-rank would be two jônin."

He frowned, "There is no way this should be A-rank. B on a bad day. I've worked this guy for information many times and really, it isn't an A rank thing. So don't worry about being stuck on an A rank with me, ok?"

She nodded, "Yes, sen… Iruka." She smiled, "Sorry my little brother is always talking about you."

He smiled, "He's a good kid. Needs to work on his throwing arm and his chakra control. Of course if his stopped pulling Choko-chan's hair when he should be listening to lectures that would also help."

"I should give him a good talking to as his big sister." She stood up, "Are you ready to continue?"

"I'm a chuunin not a princess, I can keep up." He shouldered his pack. "Would you be more comfortable about going faster if I set the pace?"

She thought for a second and then nodded, "I don't want to accidentally go to fast."

He just nodded and started off towards their destination. The girl's chakra control was good and she had a much higher reserve than Iruka, but his control was better. He really didn't like being underestimated though. It wouldn't be the first time he pissed off an ANBU member about it either.

He started at the same pace they have been at. Slowly, he increased speed making sure there were no signs of the speed increase in his chakra. Smoothly, he brought the pace up to jônin levels, then ANBU levels. He could tell she was using more chakra now, but she hadn't said anything and he was pretty sure she hadn't noticed his gradual increase. They were at least making good time now and should be at the village before noon. Iruka decided to push it. As the pace got faster, he listened carefully to the ANBU behind him. Then he heard it, her foot slipping off a branch. She managed to catch herself before falling, but when he turned and doubled back, she was sitting on a lower branch with her back against a tree truck catching her breath.

She looked up at him, confused, "What was that for?"

He smirked, "Will you start treating me like a capable shinobi and not some useless person?"

She nodded, "I'm sorry. I just … we're short staffed so I know missions are being done with …"

He cut her off, "Look. I was not assigned to this because we are short staffed. You are the one who was assigned to this because we are short staffed. Once you catch your breath, we are going to continue on, and you are going to set the pace as fast as you can. I have a lot to set up before we meet the mark tonight, and I do want to do it tonight and not tomorrow night."

The rest of the trip to the village went without incident. They stopped just outside of the town and put on civilian clothes. They walked in to the town, acting as if they were just travelers and Iruka lead her straight to a quiet hotel that wasn't too far from the bar their mark often hung out at. It wasn't long before they were in a hotel room. A very simple room with its own bathroom. There was a futon folded in one corner and a small couch, a table, a desk, and a TV.

Iruka grabbed one of the blankets and walked over to the couch, "You can have the bed. I'm going to get some rest because I am exhausted. The mark normally gets to the bar around 10 so we have nearly twelve hours."

She frowned, "The scroll said we should be there are six."

He sat on the couch, curling up around himself, "Scroll is wrong. The guy never shows up before 9 at the earliest and never leaves before 11."

She cleared her throat, "I don't know what your problem is, but I am the ranking member of this team."

He sighed, "This isn't ANBU, check the mission scroll."

She frowned and pulled it out of her pack. "MABU?"

He nodded, "Not ANBU, if this was an ANBU mission, you would be calling the shots, as it isn't, I am in charge of the actual contact with our mark."

She re-read through the scroll and nodded, "It seems to say that. What is MABU?"

He half smiled, "If you needed to know, you'd already know." With that, he curled up on the couch to go to sleep.

_-------------------- Notes ------------------------_

_(1) Conversation from chapter 174_

_Originally I was going to have the female ANBU be Yaagao (sp? the purple haired ANBU chick) but I decided this is long enough I can come up with an OC without anyone thinking I'm doing some self insertion crap. Oh and the little girl getting her hair pulled is a cannon character ;)_

_Please review, I would love to know what people are thinking of this. The story is now in it's final third._


	26. Chapter 26

_Disclaimer – If I owned Naruto, there would be a swimsuit issue._

_Spoilers – This contains spoilers for the anime and manga. Spoilers up to MANGA chapter 177(final spoiler warning will be for chapter 228 aka time skip)_

_This has been a broadcast of the scribbles alert system, we now return you to your regularly scheduled reading_

_Character list for this chapter to help keep track of them and their aliases-_

**Umino Iruka** – Alias "Yukio" – One of our favorite MABU members

**Minamino Natsumi **-- alias "Ami" – ANBU woman, black hair, green eyes, age twenty one. Assigned as backup on the mission.

**Kuroda Takumi** – Often referred to as 'the mark' Drug dealer in high end merchandise who has had some recent activity in difficult to obtain medical supplies

------------------------- 26 -------------------------

Water Runs Red – Chapter 26

Iruka woke up as the sunlit sky started to turn red. Natsumi was asleep on the futon, but started to stir as soon as Iruka moved. He stretched and stood up, grabbing his pack from where he had left it.

Natsumi sat up and looked over at him, "We should come up with a plan for contacting the mark." She stood up and walked over to where he was unpacking his bag and sorting it. Iruka was placing vials of drugs and poisons along with his medkit on one side of the couch and clothes on the other end. He was just tossing uniform parts and food and water onto the floor.

He looked up from his sorting, "Already have a plan. Do you want to come with or do you want to monitor a transmitter from here." He cracked open his med kit and started to take a truth serum from one of the vials and put it into a capsule.

As he was filling a lip piercing with the same truth serum, she spoke, "You already have a plan? I'm not staying here. I am coming with."

He nodded, "That's fine. What do you have for clothes? We're going to a bar where there are many undesirables. Drug addicts, prostitutes and other criminals will be the main patrons."

She blinked and started to pull out what she had packed. Iruka looked over the clothes, "Could be worse. Just wear the jeans and a T shirt, I need you to leave your arms exposed but cover the ANBU tattoo."

She nodded, "Of course." She walked off to the attached bathroom to get changed.

Iruka took that oportunity to get out of his uniform and slip on a pair of loose, low hanging tan pants. He pulled a small mirror out of his bag and started to examine his face. Slowly he gathered chakra in his finger. With practiced precision, he ran the finger below his right eye, carefully bruising the skin with the chakra. The skin started to bruise as he gently disrupted blood flow and bruised the sensitive tissue. He was almost done with his right eye when she walked out of the bathroom.

"What are you doing?" Natsumi walked over to him, wearing the jeans and T-shirt he had selected for her. Luckily, her ANBU tattoo was high enough on her shoulder that the shirtsleeve easily covered it.

"Trying to make a cover story believable." He started in on his left eye as she kept looking at him.

"What happened to you?" She squinted, "Are those teeth marks?" She gestured at his shoulder.

"Probably."

When he didn't elaborate, she folded her arms over her chest, "How did you get teeth marks on you like that? You're all bruised up."

He smiled, "Yeah, I am." He kept bruising the skin under his left eye, "As for how, I don't kiss and tell."

She looked surprised for a moment, then grinned, shook her head, and sat down on the couch. "So what's the plan?"

"The plan is, we are going to go in and try to do a trade for the information. Normally this guy is pretty easy to get information out of. IF that doesn't work, we're going to lure him away from the bar and drug him and get the information out of him."

"What is my role going to be?"

He smiled at her, "You're going to act pretty and play the part of girlfriend. It'll be the safest thing since then you won't be fair game for anyone else to hit on. You mission role will be to keep an eye out for anyone who is acting as his backup and to help if things get out of hand and it ends in a physical confrontation." He took out a senbon needle and placed it in the skin of his inner arm, channeling enough chakra through to bruise the skin.

"What are you doing?"

"Track marks. Very few people deal in illegal drugs without using them, so track marks are going to make the disquise all the more believable. We don't have a second chance if this goes wrong. I'm going to do the same thing to you."

She nodded and watched as he bruised up his own arms. She winced when He started to do it to her, "Do you want me to use a topical pain killer, Natsumi-san?" His voice was much softer than it has previously been, as he seemed honestly sorry for causing her pain.

She shook her head, "It's fine. It just hurts a bit. Do you have to do this often?"

He smiled and continued to mark up both her arms, letting the speed at which he worked speak for itself. She didn't press her question. Soon he had both of them looking worse for wear. He packed away various bottles of drugs in his pockets. She watched as he placed the restricted access items in the pockets of his jeans, counting how many vials he had with Konoha symbols.

When he saw what she was watching he shook one of the vials in the air, "Good old chakra powder, it commands a very high price on the black market. I have no idea why anyone would willingly use the stuff, always makes me feel like shit."

"I've never had to use it. I've been assigned it, but … we are supposed to avoid it if possible."

He nodded, "It's rarely used these days. Back during the war we went through a lot of the stuff, some shinobi even got addicted to it. Nasty stuff, I remember seeing the aftereffects of that back when I was in the academy. So if you can get away with never trying it, that's probably the smartest."

"But you said you had taken it?"

"Sometimes missions go wrong and a person doesn't have a choice." He smiled, "Don't worry, ok?"

She nodded and followed him out the door once he finished gathering up his stuff. She held onto his arm. He had pulled a dark red T-shirt on that seemed to be a little too tight, but looked good on him.

He led her into a bar, walked straight towards the bartender, and bought two bottles of beer. Handing one to her he took a quick looked around the interior of the bar. Evidently spotting what or who he was looking for, he led her to a table far in the back in a dimly lit corner. A single man was sitting at the table.

The man looked up, "It's been a long time Yukio-san."

Iruka smiled and sat down, "Yeah business has kept me in other parts but word gets around you know. You're looking like business is good Takumi-san." He pulled Natsumi closer to him and took on a very patronizing tone as if he was explaining to a three year old, "Ami-chan, this is the man I was telling you about."

She looked at Iruka, obviously confused. Iruka patted her on the head, "Now now, dear. Manners. Please tell Takumi-san that it is a pleasure to meet him."

The brief flash of anger at being addressed like that was quickly quelled and she turned to the other man, "It is a pleasure to meet you Takumi-san."

Takumi smiled at her, a slightly disconcerting smile as he appraised her more than would be standard for meeting someone. Iruka pulled her a little tighter to him, "Takumi-san, there are some interesting rumors floating around."

The man looked up, "Really?"

Iruka nodded, "It seems that people are saying you're looking for some really rare stuff. Paying top dollar. Seems you have a customer with some interesting tastes?"

"What interest is it of yours?"

Iruka smirked and leaned back in his chair, "I have gotten some good connections recently, been finding some very interesting things out there and thought they might be things you are looking for."

Natsumi took advantage of being treated like a brainless arm ornament to vaguely look around the bar. She kept her gaze looking disinterested, but was really seeing if there were any people in this place they had to watch out for. As she looked around, she saw that Iruka hadn't been lying about the type of clientele. The entire place looked seedy; it was something she wasn't used to. Even the worst places in Konoha had some sort of decency to them. Then again, a person never knew where a ninja would be in a place like Konoha.

Here there were people passed out and people obviously trying to sell themselves as well as people trying to sell things that she was sure were illegal in all the five major countries. There were even three people in the far corner of the bar having sex if she wasn't mistaken, she was trying not to look in that direction too closely.

Takumi smirked at Iruka, "What kind of connections do you have?"

Iruka leaned back, "Word has it you are looking for interesting medicinal type things, including chakra powder."

Takumi nodded, "I can't deny those rumors."

Iruka leaned over and lowered his voice so that Natsumi could barely hear what the men were saying, "I have obtained a sizable supply of chakra powder as well as some other interesting tidbits. If you tell me what you are looking for, perhaps I can set you up?"

Takumi looked around the bar before nodding, "I'm only interested in high quality."

Iruka smiled, "What I have is the best." He reached into his pocket and pulled out a vial, "Let me leave you with a sample of what I have. You can make sure the quality is up to your expectations; just don't go asking too many questions about how I got it." He smirked, "I don't want to risk anyone ever finding out where exactly their missing chakra powder went."

Takumi's eyes widened as he took the vial from Iruka. He quickly pocketed it before anyone else in the bar could see the vial was clearly marked with a Konoha leaf symbol. His voice was even quieter as he hissed, "This is from Konoha."

Iruka nodded, "Sure is."

Takumi shook his head, "I don't want to know how you got it, but let me make a list of everything else I am looking for." He grabbed a pen from his pocket and started to scratch out drug names on a bar napkin. He handed it to Iruka, "Got any of that?"

Iruka looked at the list and pocketed it, "Some of it. We'll meet back here tomorrow to work out the details of price." Takumi nodded and quickly left, his hand nervously dipping into the pocket he had stashed the vial of chakra powder in.

Iruka stood and grabbed Natsumi's arm. He pulled her close and leaned over to whisper in her ear, to anyone else at the bar it looked like he was kissing her neck, "OK we're going to get out of here and see how this is working. Keep an eye out for anyone following us."

He walked with her out of the bar and started to make their way towards the hotel they were staying at. On the way there, he stopped at a restaurant, "We should grab some take out." She nodded and they ordered food. They both kept an eye out to make sure no one had been following them as they waited the fifteen minutes for their food to be ready.

There was no sign of anyone following them by the time the food was boxed and ready to go, so Iruka took the food and led her back to the hotel room. Once they were inside, Iruka went straight to his pack and started to open a box.

She sighed and sat on the bed, "Well that didn't get us a lot of information. I thought you were going to try and get him to spill."

He smiled, "Patience." He took out one of the receivers and turned it on. The sound of someone walking could be heard. "That vial had a transmitter planted in it. It only has about six hours of battery life, but it has a pretty decent broadcast range, so we sit back and see what we can learn for the next six hours." With that he took out the boxes from the restaurant and handed her's to her. "Here, eat up, need to keep your strength up, this could still get messy." With that he broke apart his chopsticks and started to eat

Between Sand and Konoha

If there was one thing that Kakashi hated, it was when he got sand in his sandals. Somehow, the annoying grains always managed to find their way between his toes to get into those annoying places and bug the hell out of him. He put his sandals back on, now that he had removed every last grain of the annoying substance and finished his ration bar.

He didn't know the contents of his letter to sand, but he was well aware of the reaction his delivering it had been. When he walked up to the front gates, the guard's eyes had widened and as he was lead through the town, he couldn't ignore the whispers. Evidently, the legend of the copy-nin was well known. Even the members of the village council had seemed more than a little off balance by him being the one delivering the message.

When he over heard whispers of 'that slug woman must be serious' and 'maybe they aren't in as bad shape as we thought', it was then that he realized why it was so important for him to be the one to deliver the message. Konoha was seriously hurt, but by putting one of their most recognizable shinobi on a simple message delivery, it served two purposes. One, it gave the appearance their forces were higher if they could afford to send such a high-ranking shinobi on such a simple mission. Two, it showed that Tsunade was taking whatever dealings she had with sand very seriously.

Kakashi knew the only reason she could justify it was that he was still injured and recovering and he wouldn't be up to his best fighting form for a while still. However, these people didn't know that so his presence was a substantial show of force. Sand was a village without a leader until they chose the next Kazekage so they were at their weakest right now. If there ever was a time to intimidate the sand village, this was it.

Kakashi still had several hours of travel left to get back to Konoha. He hoped Iruka was still in town, he had been finding himself wanting to talk to him. There were things he should have said before he left, but he hadn't expected to be sent out so soon. He was normally very good at telling when people were lying and when Iruka had told him that he was falling in love, Kakashi hadn't detected even a speck of deceit.

He didn't know if he was falling in love, but he definitely had feelings for Iruka. It wasn't often he felt himself both trusting and respecting someone. The anger he felt at how his friends had been treating the man also served to prove Kakashi did have feelings for Iruka. He just needed some time to sort out what they were. As he took off across the sand again trying to get to Konoha as quickly as possible with the scroll sand had sent back for Tsunade, he found himself hoping that Iruka was going to be there to curl up next to. He really did like the feel of not being alone in bed.

Back to Iruka's mission

Natsumi was watching Iruka like he had grown a second head, "So you mean the entire plan was to give Takumi that vial so that you could listen to him?" She frowned, "How are we supposed to learn anything from this?"

Iruka stopped poking his chopsticks into the last of his dinner, "Simple. We told him things that no one should have know about this little business transactions. He didn't give us a full list of what he's looking for either. He's a good information source, so I don't want to ruin the connection if I don't have to so subtlety here is the key."

She nodded and took another bite of her fish, "But we were supposed to get the information from him as quickly as possible. He was very easy to find, so I don't see why we can't just get the information out of him... I thought you were going to drug him?"

Iruka smiled, "It ended up not being necessary. He took the vial."

"Why didn't you tell me about the vial and the transmitter?"

"Look, I am sure you are a wonderful ANBU operative, but I know your covert skills could use work. I was not going to risk you giving away the plan by showing some sort of nervousness when I handed over the vial."

"Umino-sensei." Her tone had become very cold. "I can appreciate your desire to see this mission succeed, and I fully acknowledge you have gotten information from that man before. However, I am a jônin and in ANBU, I am capable of handling myself on a mission and as the ranking member here, I demand to b e kept in the loop at all times."

Iruka looked over at where she was sitting, her back straight and her entire attitude screaming how mad she was. He was reminded of why he hated working with people he didn't know. He took a deep breath and shook his head, "No."

Her eyes widened and her nostrils flared, "What do you mean 'no'?"

He sighed, "Look, I want to get back to Konoha as quickly as possible with the information as well, BUT the way to do that is not to go rushing into this. I would love nothing more than to go beat him up, get the information, get home, and crawl back into my lover's bed. However, we are stuck here accomplishing this mission, and I have every intention of doing it to the best of my abilities. IF this becomes a combat situation I will gladly step aside and allow your rank and experience to dictate our actions, but until then, we play this by my rules."

She shook her head, "Not good enough."

He grunted, "Look, I'm in a bad mood for being out on a mission so soon after my last one—"

She cut him off, "Yeah, must suck being a school teacher. Half of Konoha's forces are taken out and all you can think about is boohoo two missions almost back to back."

"Fuck you. Yeah I didn't take the ego test to get the better rank and pay, fuck you. I've been working my ass off and I don't have the patience to deal with you, Miss I'm ANBU and better than any lowly chuunin."

Just then, voices could be heard over the transceiver. Both shinobi instantly shut up to listen to the whispered conversation.

_-------------------- Notes ------------------------_

_If anyone feels ambitious and would like to do a recap paragraph or two to sum up events prior to just about any given chapter, I'd like to put in little 'recap' things like the story so far just to be nice to my readers. Unless everyone thinks it's a dumb idea … I just am horrid at writing stuff like that_

_Please review, I would love to know what people are thinking of this. The story is now in its final third._


	27. Chapter 27

_Disclaimer – If I owned Naruto, taijutsu would be done shirtless -- often_

_Spoilers – This contains spoilers for the anime and manga. Spoilers up to MANGA chapter 177(final spoiler warning will be for chapter 228 aka time skip)_

_This has been a broadcast of the scribbles alert system, we now return you to your regularly scheduled reading_

_Character list for this chapter to help keep track of them and their aliases-_

_**Umino Iruka** – Alias "Yukio" – One of our favorite MABU members_

_**Minamino Natsumi **-- alias "Ami" – ANBU woman, black hair, green eyes, age twenty one. Assigned as backup on the mission._

_**Kuroda Takumi** – Often referred to as 'the mark' Drug dealer in high end merchandise who has had some recent activity in difficult to obtain medical supplies_

------------------------- 27 -------------------------

Water Runs Red – Chapter 27

_Just then, voices could be heard over the transceiver. Both shinobi instantly shut up to listen to the whispered conversation._

In a hushed voice Takumi whispered, "I think I have a line on a bunch of the items Doctor Inokuma needs, but there might be a problem."

A second voice answered, "A problem? What kind of problem?"

"One of my normal sources showed up in town today, but he had way more information than he should have had, someone in the chain is talking."

"But the doctor only has three people tracking down supplies for him and he reports directly to Mr. K. There is no possibility of a leak from there up."

"Hey, I don't know, maybe one of the other two trusted some people that shouldn't have been trusted. This guy knew I was looking for certain hard to find medical drugs"

"Takumi-san, we'll need to be more careful, do you think this source knows more than he's letting on?"

"I don't think so. He seemed same as always, except he had some new girl he was fucking with him."

"New girl?"

"Yeah, Yukio is a bit of a playboy, always has someone with him and if not, never leaves the bar without someone."

Natsumi turned to Iruka and raiser her eyebrow at that. Iruka ignored her and kept listening to the conversation.

"Now you are sure this guy can supply us with some of what we need? I am running under a serious deadline here."

"Yeah, I gave him a list of what I need and he's going to meet me back at the bar tomorrow night and we'll work out payment arrangements. He has some wickedly pure chakra powder with him and says he has a lot of other stuff as well."

"OK, I'll trust you on this." There was some rustling heard over the speaker, "You know which items are priorities, get as much as you can with this. I'll meet you back here after the deal."

Then as suddenly as it started the conversation was over and their mark could be heard leaving.

Iruka smiled, "Perfect."

Natsumi's eyes were wide as she looked at Iruka, obviously surprised they had learned as much as they did.

"OK, the new plan. I will meet with him alone tomorrow night. I'll say you're sick or something if he asks. You'll take one of the receivers, follow Takumi, and contact me when he leads you to his contact. We'll scope out the area, and then get the information out of that man. It sounds like he knows things pretty far up the food chain and I don't think we'll catch any bigger fish in this village. Sound good?"

She nodded, "Yeah. Sorry about earlier. Your plan seems to be working perfectly."

He shrugged, "It's OK. Look, I know you can kick my ass in combat, I don't have jônin level battle skills, but I do have this covert thing figured out."

"I shouldn't have come down on you so hard; I think we're all just being overworked." She smiled, "At least it looks like you had a little personal time between missions, though."

"Yeah, it could have been a lot worse." He rolled his head around cracking his neck, "Could have been a lot better, but could have been a lot worse too."

"I hope this doesn't mean that you guys are going to stop throwing your party every year."

He smirked as he stretched out on the couch, "As long as the Hokage doesn't put a stop to it, I don't think it'll end. We might have to hand over control to younger people though; I think next year is the first year former students of mine will be old enough to show up."

"It still seems weird that an academy teacher is one of the people throwing the biggest party in Konoha."

He shook his head, "Yeah yeah, I know. It's a long standing tradition from back before I was a wonderful upstanding academy teacher."

"Back when you were blowing up things at the academy?"

He smirked, "How many years behind my class were you?"

"Three."

He thought, "I don't think we ever did anything too horrible to your class."

"No, normally it was the class above us that got it. Never did understand why you didn't go for the class right behind yours and instead skipped over them."

Iruka chuckled, "That's an easy question to answer. One of my teammates had the absolute worst crush on a blonde girl in that class, named Kaori, I don't know if you know her, she dropped out after making genin and went into medicine."

Natsumi nodded, "Yeah, I think I've been stitched up by her a few times. She does nice work."

"Ask Izumo some time about that girl's hands and you won't be able to shut him up. I do have to admit she is good with the stitches." Iruka tapped the receiver, "Hmmm, sounds like it's loosing signal. I doubt we're going to hear anything else tonight, so we should both probably get some sleep while we can."

She nodded, "Yeah. I'll grab a shower, if you don't mind." Since he didn't indicate it was a problem, she went off to take her shower.

Iruka sighed as he looked around the room. Still listening to the receiver her let his mind drift back to wondering how Kakashi was. He was worried. Sure, the man was a very strong jônin who had been sent on probably hundreds of missions in worse shape than he was in when Iruka last saw him, but he was still worried.

Iruka stared up at the ceiling, part of him wondered if this was smart – falling in love with Kakashi. Part of him knew it was too late to not fall in love and that the heart wants what the heart wants. He thought back to how it felt to be with him. It had been a long time since he had felt like that, and damn it, he wasn't going to let it slip away.

When she walked out of the bathroom, he grabbed his pack and walked in to the small room, leaving the receiver under her observation. He let the hot water beat down on him, noticing the water made his hair smell like Kakashi's shampoo again. He wondered how he was ever going to keep the relationship secret in a village of ninja. There were ninja who could track down a trail that was days old. How were they going to hide the fact they smelt of each other. How could it be hidden? Damn it.

He sat down on the floor of the shower letting the hot water hit his head. Damn it, the real question was why did it have to be hidden? What was so horrible about it? He had faithfully served Konoha for all of his life. His parents had died defending the village. His mother's service to the MABU ranks had almost destroyed everything she cared about, but still she served as fully as she was able. His father had been injured countless times in his work as an ANBU. He had taken a near fatal wound putting his body between that of the Fourth's and an Assailant. Was any of that good enough that the village should accept their son how he was?

He tried to clear his head. He was exhausted. He should have gotten more sleep, if he wasn't so tired these thoughts wouldn't be occurring to him. He didn't mind going on difficult, dangerous, or long lasting missions. He would do whatever it took to keep the village safe. He was no different than countless other Konoha ninja all willing to put down their lives to protect the village. There was supposed to be something in return for that. The hidden village was supposed to be home.

He was supposed to be putting his life in danger to protect his home, not a village where his empty apartment happened to be located. Every day Konoha ninja put their lives on the line to keep the village safe, but somehow it wasn't enough. Why couldn't they be people too? What difference would it make if the infamous copy nin was dating him, why should that make the man of legends any less able to defend his village.

Then it occurred to Iruka, maybe the 'school teacher' part wasn't the problem. Maybe the fact he was a man wasn't the problem. Maybe it was that he was MABU. He still remembered how the other kids looked at him when they found out his mother was MABU when people started talking about her after her jounin promotion. Not that any of them really knew what MABU was. He grew up with a good idea; his father had served as backup for his mother for a good deal of her career. The Uchiha had always looked down on the MABU ranks and used every opportunity they had in council meetings to undermine it. They didn't think anything but ANBU was needed.

A couple of other older clans had been the same way. The Kamizuki used to be one of them as well. That was until the heir to the Kamizuki clan had fallen head over heels in love for a member of MABU. It was a good thing Izumo ended up being the spitting image of his father though, if he had resembled his mother more the marriage might have been more opposed than it was. He sighed and turned off the water, his mind was wandering too much. That all was past, the Uchiha were all dead except for two. The Kamizuki were nearly wiped out as well. Many of the older houses were decimated by the war and the fox attack. That was all in the past, all he could do now was concentrate on the present and the future.

He dried off and looked at his reflection in the mirror. He knew he looked good, he didn't normally stop and think about it beyond how he could use it to accomplish a mission. He had his mother's dark eyes, hair, and her features. He sighed as he mussed up his hair. He wished Kakashi hadn't been sent off on a mission right away. Iruka had told him he was falling in love with him, but he didn't know if the man realized how serious he was about it. He also didn't know if Kakashi felt the same way, or might someday feel the same way.

He pulled on a pair of sweatpants and then stopped. He started to laugh. He heard a voice from outside the bathroom, "Are you all right in there?"

He straightened up and gathered up his stuff, "Yeah, fine." He walked out smiling as he made his way over to the couch in the sweatpants that were a little too long for him and a tiny bit too tight. They still smelt like their owner. She was looking at him oddly. He smirked, "It's nothing. Did you hear anything over the transmitter?"

She shook her head, "No, the signal seems to be getting fainter."

"Why don't you get some sleep, I'll go to sleep as soon as it completely dies, it shouldn't be long now."

"Sure. What was so funny earlier?"

He shrugged and decided to half lie, "I was giving someone a hard time yesterday for borrowing my clothes and I realized I accidentally did the same thing. So just laughing at a little laundry mix-up."

She gave him an odd look, "Ohh kay. Doesn't seem that funny to me, but whatever." She smiled then, "I'll see you in the morning." With that, she went to bed leaving him on the couch to listen to the dying transmitter and think about the owner of the sweatpants that he was wearing.

* * *

Kakashi back in Konoha

Kakashi went straight to the Hokage's office as soon as he returned from Sand to drop off the scroll from the Sand council and to report about how suitably intimidated the people he had encountered in Sand had been. As expected, that had been her hope. She quickly read the scroll that Kakashi had brought back and filed it. "Good job Hatake. I hate to do this to you, but I have another mission." She handed over a scroll, ignoring the look of displeasure he was giving her. "I'm sorry about this. I know you need to rest."

He sighed as he looked at the scroll, "So I have to leave right away?"

She nodded, "The Umino kid is gone on a mission anyways." He looked straight at her, his visible eye almost peering through her, "I don't honestly know when he'll be back."

"You didn't send him out alone, did you?"

She shook her head, "No, I sent him with an ANBU backup."

He sighed, "Is the Uchiha still in the hospital?"

She nodded, "He should be out soon. He's almost fully recovered. I want to talk to you and make sure you're on your best behavior."

He raised his visible eyebrow, "What do you mean?"

"Look, the council is against the covert unit under Ibiki. MABU has always been looked down on." Kakashi's eyes widened for a second at mention of the organizations actual name. He knew that's what it was, but he hadn't heard anyone refer to it as such and he had been avoiding saying the name. "While the Third was in his second term, it got worse and I need to slowly bring people around to accepting it again. What I can't have during that time is rumors of one of my best shinobi being in a relationship with one of the operatives."

He frowned under the mask, "I am not going to let the opinions of the council influence my personal life, and you know that."

She frowned, "I wouldn't ask you to do anything that didn't need to be done." She stood up and walked over to him, "I know these next few weeks are going to be hard on everyone as we get things figured out. I'll try to give the two of you some matching time off, but I have to ask for some discretion in return."

He nodded, "Yes, Hokage-sama."

"Oh, don't give me that attitude, brat. It figures it would be an Umino making life difficult."

"You knew his mother."

She nodded, "Yeah. Helped his mother get her jônin title."

"Do you think Iruka is as skilled?"

She paused and thought, "I think there is every possibility. However, if his skills really are similar this mother's, then they are not exactly the type of skills that are easy to showcase for jônin testing."

"What were his mother's skills?"

She frowned at him, "You don't know what his abilities are, do you?"

He shook his head, "I know he has near perfect chakra control. His Taijutsu is pretty good from what I've seen. Aside from when he is teaching at the academy, I have never seen him do any hand seals except for one small fire jutsu. I know he can do things, but I have never seen it. Other than that, all I've seen him do is excellent under cover work using deception. He's smart, I do know that."

She nodded, "His mother didn't do a lot of flashy stuff either. She had the same type of chakra control; it's a family trait of theirs. Low chakra levels, but excellent control. I tried every stamina exercise I knew of, and nothing increased his mother's levels. I was hoping he'd get some of the chakra reserve his father had. Now that man was flashy. His family was from wave and he had learned all kinds of water jutsu. I wouldn't be surprised if Iruka had learned some."

"So, his abilities aren't detailed in his file?"

She smiled, "No. Maybe when things calm down, I'll push him a bit and see what he's capable of. You're his … lover?" When he didn't object to the title she continued, "You could just ask him what his abilities are."

He scratched the back of his head, "Well if he was around, I could just ask him." He shrugged, "Maaa, this is so annoying. Figuring out things with all these missions going on and having to leave as soon as I get back. I should go check on the Uchiha. If he gets back from his mission, you'll tell him I'm I'll be back soon?"

She smiled, "Yes, I'll tell the little Iruka-chan that you're looking for him."

He shook his head, "I wouldn't let him hear you call him that."

She laughed, "Hah. He can't do anything to me; I have more incriminating stories about him than almost any other shinobi in the village. I think I have a picture some place of when he got stuck on the ceiling."

"Do I want to know?"

She smirked, "bring back a nice bottle of the local sake from your mission and I might share some stories, until then, get out of here brat."

With a wave of his hand and a muttering of, "Whatever." He left the Hokage's office to go to the hospital and see Sasuke.

_(A/N – The following events are from chapter 176 and taken near directly from the manga, they effect what goes on in the next few chapters so they need to be included.)_

As he approached the hospital, he suddenly felt chakra, and a lot of it. As he looked up at the roof, he recognized it as Naruto, and then he heard an all too familiar sound. With a burst of Chakra, he was up on the roof, just barely in time to grab each boy by the wrist and stop their potentially lethal blows. Without a word, he threw each boy into a water storage tank on the roof. One Chidori wielding Sasuke went one direction and a Rasengan wielding Naruto went another.

"Hey! You Two!" He couldn't believe what he had interrupted. The boys were no longer sparring, that had been a real fight, "What are you doing on the roof of the hospital? If you're fighting, you're getting too heated … BOTH of you." He looked over to where the bows were trying to get their attack arms off of the water tanks. He couldn't believe that Naruto was using an attack that only Kakashi's sensei had been able to use. Who the hell was stupid enough to teach that to that little headstrong brat?

Speaking of brats, the one he had taught the chidori to hadn't been pulling any punches either. He teleported to the top of the water tank that Sasuke had destroyed, "Why are you so obsessed with your superiority complex, Sasuke?"

The boy had no answer and just glared up at him.

"That level of Chidori just now is not an appropriate technique to be used here against your own comrade." He almost feared the answer to his next questions. "Were you trying to kill Naruto?" When he said kill, there was a gasp from Sakura but no response from Sasuke, not even a flinch, "Where did such immature behavior come from." He said nothing as Sasuke left in a huff. The boy didn't even spare a glance to his other two teammates.

Kakashi watched him go. He sighed as he saw Sakura start to cry, how had he failed his team this badly? He felt a familiar presence behind him. Without turning to face the Sennin behind him he simply asked, "Were you the one that taught Naruto that jutsu? I feel that Naruto is still too young to be able to control that level of a jutsu. In the worst-case scenario, it could have killed Sasuke. Even if it was for his own protection against the Akatsuki, teaching that jutsu to Naruto was still—"

Jiraiya cut him off, "Let's be fair. That chidori is too much for Sasuke too. I never thought that Naruto was the type to use that jutsu on his teammates. Perhaps there is something going on between those two?"

Kakashi frowned, "Ah, there is somewhat."

"Somewhat?"

"Simply put, it's similar to the relationship Orochimaru had with you in the past."

Jiraiya frowned. "Kah"

Kakashi's shoulder's slumped, "From Naruto's perspective, Sasuke is not only his teammate, but also his rival. He really wants to be on equal standing with Sasuke. Perhaps he got tired of Sasuke's goading taunts. Starting in those days in the academy, he's been chasing after Sasuke, chasing him to this day. Right now, what Naruto wants isn't your approval, nor mine. Nor our recognition. All he wants is Sasuke's recognition." He glanced down at the tired looking blond haired boy, "On one hand, Naruto's rapid development has caught Sasuke's attention. And Sasuke's beginning to feel threatened by his growth. Sasuke feels like he isn't progressing fast enough, because Naruto has become stronger."

Jiraiya frowned, "For revenge?"

Kakashi nodded, "Itachi has caused Sasuke to lead a dark life, because of this Sasuke doesn't acknowledge Naruto. If he does, then he will deny his reason for living until now. It complicates things, this type of competition."

Jiraiya stood up, "This sort of situation isn't that bad, just a few choice words will do."

Kakashi didn't share Jiraiya's opinion, but he needed to chase after Sasuke and get on with his mission. "Please, I'll leave Naruto to you, not only do I still have a mission, but also the problem with the chidori."

He leapt off the water tank and walked over to Sakura, wishing he had Iruka's ability to calm crying children. Leaning over so he was more on eye level with her, he smiled, "It's all right. Soon things will go back to the way they used to be." She stopped crying and for a moment had her normal Sakura hopeful look back in her eyes. With barely a hint of his departure, he was off to find Sasuke. This was a longer delay than he wanted before his mission, but it was unavoidable.

He found the boy sitting on a tree limb. With a quick flick of the wrist he sent out a shuriken with ninja wire attached and within seconds had the boy firmly attached to the tree.

Sasuke knew it was useless to resist the wires but it didn't keep him from glaring at his teacher, "What's the meaning of this?"

Kakashi looked down at the boy; it was so obvious he was carrying a huge chip on his shoulder. Briefly, Kakashi wondered why Sasuke thought he had the monopoly on angst. "If I didn't do this you'd run away. You aren't the type to listen quietly while I lecture."

The boy just grunted. "Sasuke, quit seeking revenge." He ignored the glare the teenager was giving him, "In this line of work, I've seen just how bad guys like you can get. In the end, those who tasted revenge were not satisfied … it ended in tragedy. You'll only hurt and suffer more. Even if you are successful in your revenge, all you'll be left with is emptiness."

Something inside the boy snapped, "What the hell do you know! Don't talk to me like you understand."

Kakashi sighed; yep the boy thought he had the pain monopoly, "Hey calm down."

Sasuke's voice dropped to a thick whisper, "What if I were to kill the one you love most?" How far would you stray from what you just said? I can make you feel true pain."

Briefly, Kakashi wondered if Sasuke meant Iruka, but he quickly decided it was a general threat. "That would work, however, unfortunately, for me, no such person exists. Those people have already been killed." He watched Sasuke's expression turn from his little self-centered angst ridden no one under stands me look to one of shock.

Kakashi continued now that the boy was shocked into listening, "I've also lived in a long, hard era. I understand how terrible and true pain and loss are. Well, we aren't the lucky ones, that's for sure. But we aren't the worst off. Both you and I have found precious companions." He saw Sasuke starting to think about his words, he could only hope it would be enough, "You should know from your loss, chidori is a power given to you because you found things important to you. That power is not something to be used against your friends or for revenge. You yourself should know what that power should be used for. This hard on whether you can or cannot hold true to what I've said."

(A/N – end the Naruto Manga scene)

With that Kakashi was off to take care of hiss mission he was already an hour late for starting. He could only hope the kids would be all right with him gone. Naruto he was worried about, but not as much as he was worried for Sasuke. He didn't want to loose the boy to the emptiness of revenge. As he dashed through the trees trying to get to the village Tsunade had sent him to, he thought about the times he could have directed the children better. The number of missed opportunities was immense, but hopefully he had done enough and if not, perhaps Iruka had instilled the inner strength into them before graduation to carry them through these next few days.

------------------- Notes ---------------

_Really am trying to keep the OC's to a minimum, in that spirit Kaori is NOT an OC, I just decided her age was not what would make sense and knocked her from down to be about 28, but she is one of the dark blonde, brunette in a dark light, nurses that is in ep 55 or ch 93_

_Please review, I would love to know what people are thinking of this. The story is now in its final third._


	28. Chapter 28

_Disclaimer – I don't own Naruto, wish I did, but I don't_

_Spoilers – This contains spoilers for the anime and manga. Spoilers up to MANGA chapter 177(final spoiler warning will be for chapter 228 aka time skip)_

_This has been a broadcast of the scribbles alert system, we now return you to your regularly scheduled reading_

_The character cheat sheet for Iruka's little mission:_

_Umino Iruka – Alias "Yukio" – One of our favorite MABU members_

_Minamino Natsumi -- alias "Ami" – ANBU woman, black hair, green eyes, age twenty-one. Assigned as backup on the mission._

_Kuroda Takumi – Often referred to as 'the mark' Drug dealer in high end merchandise who has had some recent activity in difficult to obtain medical supplies_

_Dr. Inokuma – Mentioned in conversation_

_Mr. K – Unknown only referred to in conversation_

------------------------- 28 -------------------------

Water Runs Red – Chapter 28

Slowly Iruka woke up. The transmitter had died at some insane hour of the morning and he'd been sleeping on the couch ever since. He hadn't slept well; then again, he normally didn't sleep well on these kinds of missions. When he heard Natsumi start to wake, he sat up, "Nothing to report from the transmitter last night."

She sat up on the bed and nodded, "OK, so the plan is still the same, and it's the real plan this time, right?"

He nodded as he started to stretch, "Yep. I meet with him, hand over the drugs, and take the money. You follow him to his contact and then when I get back here I grab a radio unit, contact you and rendezvous with you. We then assess the situation with the contact and figure out the best way to go from there."

He placed his hands together and set his feet apart as he slowly started to move through his morning exercise katas. As he worked through his exercises, she busied herself preparing her weapons. He was grateful for the quiet. He wanted to think, not to talk. Thankfully, he had been trained since he was very little to not talk in his sleep, with his mother in MABU and his father in ANBU; he had been destined for this type of work.

If he did talk in his sleep, any mutterings last night would have been good blackmail material. He could vividly remember his dreams. The two nights of making love with Kakashi had fueled his fantasies into an increased vividness. Every detail of the man's body had been unleashed by his subconscious. The imperfections of the man only making him more real and perfect. He recalled every taste, every sound, and every touch with a detail that astonished him.

Iruka almost missed his timing on a series of kicks because he was so absorbed in remembering the faint network of scars along the jônin's thighs. This was getting in the way of his work -- he hated wondering. He just wanted to know what the other man thought of him. Was he falling in love or was this a simple infatuation for the other man? Iruka didn't think it was anything so simple, this had been going on for a while now and Kakashi definitely did seem serious when he was with Iruka.

He went into a complex pattern of punches and kicks, he had to stop acting like some eight year old with a crush. He was twenty-four and a chuunin for Konoha. He was a member of an elite covert force and he needed to start acting like it.

After his exercises, he started to sketch out a map of the town from memory onto a scroll. After she showered and got dress, she peaked over his shoulder to see what he was doing, "You've been here enough to know the town that well?"

He nodded, "Yeah, I've worked Takumi more than a few times. Plus, this town is convenient for a lot of other places I've gotten sent to, so I tend to stay the night here when it suits the mission as well. They actually have several really good restaurants, speaking of which, are you hungry?"

She nodded, "Sure. Is it safe to go out?"

He shrugged, "It fits with the identities we're using. I'll just throw on something and we can go get some food. Besides, it wouldn't be very in character if Yukio didn't take his Ami-chan out to eat, right?"

She laughed and shook her head, "Of course not." Then in an obviously teasing tone she added, "I hope your girlfriend back in Konoha doesn't get jealous. I wouldn't want to accidentally hurt her if she attacked me"

He grabbed some clothes and walked into the bathroom, "I wouldn't worry about that." He smirked as he closed the door. Mentally he added, 'My boyfriend could kick your ass without even bothering to put his porn down.'

He walked back out wearing a pair of designer cargo pants and a tight brown T-shirt with a loose black dress shirt (unbuttoned of course) over that. He led her to a restaurant on the other side of town, a nice traditional type of place. The food was excellent and the sake to go with it was top notch. Throughout the meal, Iruka was a perfect gentleman. He ordered for her, he poured for her, he showed perfect manners. When the bill came, he took care of it and offered her his arm to leave.

Once they were out of the restaurant, she leaned into his to whisper, "That was more expensive than I had been expecting. Do you think they'll cover that on the expense report?"

He laughed, "I've submitted much worse than that place, got to act in character you know. Anyways. I have a feeling we're going to be bringing back way more money than we go through on this mission."

He paused at a booth where some people were selling flowers to buy her some. Momentarily his brain tried to think of what Kakashi would do if he bought the silver-haired jônin flowers. Natsumi took the flowers when he offered them to her, still looking less than convinced. "What do you mean come back with more money?"

He shrugged as he led them back to the hotel, "Simple, I'm selling Takumi a bunch of stuff tonight. Thus, I'll have the cash from that. When we go and get the contact, I see no reason to not take the items back as well, thus a nice net profit for this mission."

She frowned, "Is that ethical?"

Now that they were back in the hotel room, he sat back down on the couch, grabbing the remote for the TV as he started to try to find a local news show, "Ethical? We're shinobi; ethics get in the way on missions."

"I never thought one of the people that teaches the children would say something like that. I mean, we should act with honor and serve out village with pride."

"I would rather my students stay alive than have some misguided sense of honor." He stopped channel flipping when he reached a news station and made it very obvious that he was going to pointedly ignore her.

She went back to preparing her weapons for tonight and Iruka ignored her for the most part, instead concentrating on the local news. After that, he flipped around until he found some old movie he had seen a few times. Once that was on, he started to go through all the communications equipment. He set aside a pair of the radios that were relatively standard issue. They were much too large for most covert work, but they had the benefit of being two-way and he didn't trust Natsumi to be able to carry this off using only one-way communication.

He also set aside one of the one-way transmitters, just as an added backup. He turned the two two-way devices into each other using a very rarely used frequency. Then he set up the one-way with the same receiver he had used last night.

It took several hours to get everything modified and by the end of it, she was carefully watching what he was doing. "I didn't know the frequencies on those could be field modified like that."

He nodded, "Normally its not needed, and it probably isn't needed this time either, but I'm more than a little paranoid about some things."

"Paranoid isn't necessarily a bad thing."

He nodded, "I know. We should both start to get ready for tonight." He started to arrange several vials and packets of drugs into a small canvas bag.

She nodded and grabbed black clothes and walked into the bathroom. By the time she was done getting ready, he had everything in the canvas bag sorted and arranged as well as a list of what was in there. "I'm not placing a transmitter in the bag since I am fully expecting it to be searched carefully and I wouldn't be surprised if they switched bags at some point."

She nodded as she placed the black band of the two-way device around her neck. "I'll keep the target in sight."

He nodded, handing her the map he had drawn earlier, "This map is marked with a grid pattern, give me the locations off the grid when you hear from me."

She nodded, "No problem."

He grabbed the bag and gestured towards the window. "I'll go out the front and you go out the window."

When she nodded, he made his way to the front door. Once she disappeared through the window, he made his way out the front door and slowly made his way to the same bar as the night before. He didn't see her following him, so that was good. He didn't really stretch his senses out either though, so he didn't have a complete idea of how well she was shadowing him. He walked into the bar, assuming that she was watching the exits.

Takumi was at the same table as the night before. Iruka walked over there and sat down in the seat next to him. He took out the piece of paper that had the contents of the bag written on it and handed it over as Takumi gestured for someone to bring over some beers.

Iruka drank his beer as Takumi read over the list of what he had on him. Then the bickering over price started in. It took a good thirty minutes and another round of beer before details were worked out and the bag was handed over to Takumi. Iruka left with a rather nice satchel of cash.

He carefully made his way back to the hotel room, making sure that no one was following him. He stretched out his senses to make sure he didn't detect anyone and when that check came back clear, he walked into the hotel and quickly made his way to his room.

He threw the money on the bed and grabbed the two-way radio, fastening the black band around his neck quickly as he placed the earpiece in. "Natsumi, can you hear me?" He pulled off his designer pants and pulled on a pair of black uniform pants as he waited for her response.

"This is Natsumi, I am still following Takumi. We are in sector T5 and heading north."

"Affirmative. I'm on my way, keep me updated as possible."

"Roger."

He slipped on black boots and threw the black dress shirt he had been wearing onto the bed as he pulled on a long sleeved black T-shirt. He hid the money under the bed and jumped out the window, flinging himself up to the roof so that he could start making his way to Natsumi's last reported position. He used as little chakra as possible on his way; he didn't want to give away his position when going into an unknown situation.

He quickly made his way to sector T5, as he got there he got an update that they were in V7 now and that Takumi had entered a small house on the outskirts of town. When Iruka arrived, he found her at one of the windows, watching what was going on inside. He slipped in next to her, listening to what the men inside were saying.

The second man was congratulating Takumi. Quickly, Takumi left the building leaving the man he had met inside alone. They watched as he started to gather up his belongs and place them in a pack. Iruka leaned into Natsumi, "You go in through the door, and I'll go in through the window. I sense a developed chakra from him, but I don't detect a cursed seal. He seems to be jônin level. Let's immobilize him and figure out if we'll field interrogate him or bring him back to Ibiki. You have lead."

She nodded and soundlessly made her way over to the door of the house. He waited for her to make the first move, this was definitely a combat situation and he had to admit that she was the lead in that type of situation. When she went in through the door, he broke the window with a quick blast of chakra and jumped through.

At first, the man concentrated on Natsumi, with her Katana and wild chakra she was the obvious target. Iruka came in behind her and used her showy combat display as the perfect cover to nail the other man in the neck with a well-directed senbon. Before the drug on the needle could take affect, the man twisted around and sent a powerful electric shockwave at Iruka. He tried to dodge the broad attack in the confined quarters, but only managed to get mostly out of the way, taking a good hit on his arm.

Natsumi came at the man with a powerful kick and nailed him across the skull with her boot. The drug was seeping into his system and his reactions were obviously slowed as Natsumi followed the kick up with a stiff right punch. The man crumbled to the ground, unconscious -- whether from the drug or from the bruising was hard to say.

Iruka frowned as he field bandaged his arm, "Sorry. The drug should have been quicker acting than that. He must have put up some sort of a jutsu to slow or partially neutralize the poison." He looked down at the unconscious man, "I don't think we can field interrogate another shinobi of his level well enough to make sure we don't miss anything. I think we should bring him back to Ibiki."

She nodded, "I agree. Are you sure your OK, that arm looks pretty bad."

He shrugged, "I'll be fine."

He gathered the man's possessions and started to go around the room and make sure there weren't any clues they were missing. "OK. Do you want to go back to our hotel or should I? We should head back as soon as we gather everything up."

"I'll guard the prisoner and meet up with you on the southern road."

Iruka placed the man's possessions in the backpack and slipped it over his shoulders, "Sounds good, I'll meet up with you, but keep the radios on just in case."

She securely bound the prisoner, slung him over a shoulder, and walked out the door. Iruka quickly ran to the hotel room, gathered up all their stuff, and now loaded down with his pack, her pack and the prisoner's pack he made his way to the meeting spot. "Natsumi, I'm in route to the meeting spot."

When he got there she had the man leaned up against a tree, "Iruka, I'm not sure how much longer he's going to stay unconscious."

Iruka pulled out his med pack, "No worries. I have enough drugs to keep him unconscious until we get to Konoha. He pulled out a syringe and loaded it with a pale blue liquid from one of the vials in his med kit. He then inserted the needle into the man's arm and carefully injected the contents, "I'll need to re-dose him once the sun rises, but until them he'll be unconscious. I can carry him if you'd prefer."

She nodded, "OK, we can switch off when he gets too heavy." She shouldered the cumbersome packs while Iruka pulled the unconscious man onto his back. They took off towards Konoha. Every few hours they switched loads and every eight hours they re-drugged the man. They didn't stop to do more than switch loads or take a quick ration bar as they rushed towards Konoha as quickly as they could. Unfortunately, the trip took longer than planned since they had to be extra careful to avoid people with their prisoner. By the time the walls of Konoha could be seen in the moonlight, Iruka felt like he had been traveling for months, not days.

They went straight to ANBU building and the headquarters of Torture and Interrogation. It was three in the morning so he knew it would take a while for Ibiki to get there. Natsumi wandered off to the ANBU area to grab a shower, Iruka politely declined her offer to bend the rules and let him in since this was a mission for Ibiki. Well, it was a polite decline considering he hadn't really slept in several days and the woman was working his last nerve.

She was still at the showers when Ibiki walked into the building. Iruka was sitting in a chair with the captive lying on the floor at his feet. Ibiki took one look at Iruka and winced. Iruka looked up at the scarred jônin, "Take that woman's report and get her out of my sight or I swear, I am quitting unless I snap first and go missing-nin."

Ibiki nodded, "Yeah, no problem. What's the story with this guy?"

"This guy needs a full interrogation, I didn't think we could do a field job plus he is most likely a sound jounin, no seal on him though. He seems pretty high up in the chain of command of whatever is going on with the drugs."

Just then, Natsumi strolled into the room. She looked much happier now that she was wearing clean clothes and had grabbed a shower.

Ibiki looked at her, "I'm going to debrief you while Iruka accompanies the captive down to an interrogation cell and has that arm looked at." Ibiki gestured for two of his men to carry the unconscious person and Iruka followed, grateful to get away from Natsumi.

Once they got the man secured in a cell, one of the two offered to go and get some coffee. It was an offer Iruka happily accepted. After the ANBU medic performed a healing Jutsu on his arm, Iruka curled up in a corner of the floor. He knew he looked like hell, so what difference did it make if he looked even more worn out by napping in the corner on the floor.

He wasn't sure how much time had passed before Ibiki showed up. When the man got close, Iruka forced himself to sit up. Ibiki looked down at him, "You look like hell."

"Really? And here I thought I was about to win sexiest man in Konoha." Iruka didn't bother getting up to his feet; he figured sitting up was enough.

"I got a very detailed report on how 'impossible' you were and how you didn't seem to realize the differences in ranks and on and on, was she like that on the mission?"

Iruka took a deep breath, "It didn't go well as far as 'teamwork' counts. In her defense, I am in a shitty mood though."

"Really? I thought you looking like you were ready to bite someone's head off was a sign of a good mood. It would make things simpler if you would just take your damn jônin test."

Iruka growled. His look was an obvious 'no' to the jônin testing comment. "Let's get this over with." With that, Iruka went into his report about what happened. Once he was done Ibiki nodded. "Good work. Are you up to helping me interrogate this guy? With what you know, it might go easier if you're here."

Iruka nodded, "Yeah, I can pull it together for a while." Iruka stood up and they went into the cell containing the man. Iruka gave him the drug to counteract the sedative that he had been pumping into him the whole trip.

It took several hours to get all the information they needed out of him. Through the judicious use of truth seals, truth drugs, and other forms of torture, the man told them everything they wanted to know over the course of the nearly day long torture session. His name was Yoshikuni Kazuma and he was working for Dr Inokuma. Evidently, that doctor was located just inside of Rice country and was getting assistance of some sort from a medical-nin in sound. Based on the name of 'Mr. K' and the fact the person was a Sound medical-nin, they both felt pretty confident assuming it was Kabuto

It took some rather interesting methods to get the information out about what the Doctor was doing. Ibiki even paled when they found out what the project was. Dr Inokuma had a member of the branch house of Hyuuga as a captive and was keeping him just barely alive as they tried to unlock the secrets of the Byakugan. Kazuma didn't know as much as they were hoping, but he had a pretty good idea about the location the Hyuuga was being kept. It was nearly sunset when they finished the interrogation. Evidently, the Hyuuga had been in sound's possession for several years.

Tsunade was at her desk when Ibiki barged into her office with Iruka close on his heels. Iruka had never seen her look so worried, and this was before they dropped their bombshell on her.

Iruka collapsed into a chair in front of Tsunade's desk while Ibiki started in on informing the Hokage. She grew even more serious as Ibiki told her the contents of the interrogation. Finally when the man was done explaining, she took a deep breath, "Things are even worse than that."

Even Iruka looked up at her when she said that, "What happened?"

Tsunade sighed, "Sasuke left to join Orochimaru." Both men looked at Tsunade in stunned silence. She continued, "The only forces I had available were genin, so I sent then out to try and bring Sasuke back."

Iruka sat up straighter, "But…"

She looked at Iruka, "Evidently several of the Sound-nin that were detailed by the missing-nin you brought in were accompanying him. We don't know the details yet. Kakashi returned from his mission several hours ago and went after them."

Iruka looked down at the ground and sighed. "So we might be going to sounds to recover two bloodlines instead of just one."

She nodded, "I know this is going to be hard, but…"

Just then, an ANBU ran into the room. He was about to start speaking when he saw Iruka and Ibiki already in the office.

Tsunade nodded, "Report, you can speak freely."

The man nodded, "They're on their way back. The initial reports are of heavy injuries. We're having them go directly to the hospital; they should start ariving there within the hour."

She nodded and stood up. "Ibiki, get reports ready about who we can send."

Ibiki glanced at Iruka, who just sighed, "Preliminary reports are in my desk, top drawer under the false bottom. I had Izumo and Anko do it last week."

Ibiki nodded and left as Tsunade looked at Iruka, "I know it's pointless right now telling you to go and rest. Come with me and stick close, I don't want you dropping from exhaustion."

_-------------------- Notes ------------------------_

_Sorry for another cliff hanger but as things approach the end, the action is going to get faster. Currant estimations are chapter 40 will be the final chapter._

_Please review, I would love to know what people are thinking of this. The story is now in its final third._


	29. Chapter 29

_Disclaimer – If I owned Naruto, then Izumo, Iruka, and a few other choice shinobi would be assigned a mission to be underwear models…_

_Spoilers – This contains spoilers for the anime and manga. Spoilers up to MANGA chapter 228_

_This has been a broadcast of the scribbles alert system, we now return you to your regularly scheduled reading_

_Chapter Specific warning: This is as explicit as I think things can get under a 'M' rating. If anyone thinks it needs further censoring, please send me a message and it will be done. Thus warning, Male X Male sex scene (censored for FFN) but still there._

_The unedited version of this can be found at http/ scribblesitm. livejournal. com/ 7351.html _

_Remove the spaces :)_

_Thanks to Chibinecco for the beta, all mistakes remaining are solely my own :)_

------------------------- 29 -------------------------

Water Runs Red – Chapter 29

Iruka followed Tsunade like a shadow to the hospital and sat next to her as she received preliminary reports from the medics sent to retrieve the injured. The medical teams started to stream in, and Iruka stayed at the hospital waiting for the group he needed to see. The genin were in bad shape, very bad shape. Evidently, there would have been severe casualties if the sand nins hadn't been there to back them up.

Finally, Kakashi arrived at the hospital with a battered, bruised, and nearly unconscious Naruto. Iruka led Kakashi to the room Tsunade set aside for Naruto before she disappeared into the ICU with Chouji. Once a doctor had proclaimed that the unconscious Naruto was going to be fine after his body had some time to recover, Iruka turned to Kakashi. Without a word, he took the jounin's hand into his.

Kakashi looked down into Iruka's brown eyes, seeing the obvious exhaustion. The man was wearing the same clothes he had made the return trip from Rock in, and looked much worse for wear. "You look like I feel."

Iruka tried to smile. "I was thinking the same thing."

That was when it happened. Iruka's eyes locked onto the hollow look in his lover's visible eye. The man was pale and getting paler. Iruka led him to a chair and helped him sit down, "Kashi, don't pass out on me." He kneeled in front of the jounin, gripping the man's hands tightly in his.

Kakashi nodded, "I need to get out of here."

Iruka took the jounin's arm and led him out of the hospital without another word. There was nothing more either of them could do in that place anyways. Keeping a hold of Kakashi's arm, the chuunin led him through near deserted streets. It was the middle of the night. Civilians were not out at this hour, so if they were to encounter anyone it would most likely be another ninja. He led Kakashi down narrow streets, past the academy, and up the three flights of steps before unlocking a door and leading the man into the living room.

They both toed out of their sandals, and Iruka kicked the two pairs of shoes over to the corner as he led Kakashi to the kitchen table. "Tea or something stronger?"

Kakashi blinked, as if just now realizing where he was. Iruka briefly reflected on the level of trust the other man had in him. Kakashi took a breath, and then replied, "Tea. Tea sounds good."

Iruka nodded and started to boil water. He searched through the cupboards to find something that was still edible, finally finding a box of unopened cookies. He set them on the table as he scanned for anything else still edible after not being in the apartment for almost two months. "Sorry the food situation sucks, I haven't been here in a while."

Kakashi nodded, "Not like my place is any better."

Iruka shrugged, "Yeah, I guess you have a point." He started to pour the tea and then brought two cups over to the table. Refraining from asking Kakashi how he was, the fact the man was not doing well was obvious, Iruka did not want to pressure him into confiding.

The two men sipped their tea for a few moments before Kakashi sighed, "I can't believe I failed them." Kakashi left his mask around his neck as he sat there frowning.

Iruka had been confident this was where things were going. "Sasuke made his own choice."

Kakashi shook his head, "Not just him, the other two. I should have done more for Naruto instead of letting him think he always had to catch up, and I should have paid more attention to Sakura."

"Teenagers are hard to figure out. You only had them for a few months -- I had them for longer. In the time you had them, they all grew." Iruka twirled his cup in his hand. "You showed trust in them, more trust than I ever did."

Kakashi looked across the table at Iruka. "I thought Naruto was dead when I found him. Sasuke could have finished him off; I don't know why he didn't. I can't believe I lost a student to Orochimaru that fucking snake bastard."

Iruka nodded, "Power is tempting and Sasuke isn't the first to fall for the lure of power."

"I should have been able to stop him."

"I learned the hard way, Kakashi, sometimes there really is nothing you could have done to change how things work out." Iruka stared into his cooling cup of tea, "I beat myself up for a long time after Anko left with Orochimaru, thinking if only I had done or said something different. If I had loved her more, then she wouldn't have gone." He looked over at Kakashi who was looking at him with a surprised look. "There was nothing I could have done to stop Anko, just like there was nothing you could do to stop Sasuke."

Kakashi nodded, not bothering to replace his mask after his last sip of tea. "You're right, I think. It just, I guess I'm really tired and just…" he looked over at Iruka. Iruka for his part was sitting there, looking as patient as any human had a right to look. Kakashi half smiled over at the chuunin, "Thank you."

Iruka tilted his head at the thank you, "For what?"

"For listening to me."

Iruka smiled, "Anytime you need someone to talk to."

Kakashi stood up, "We should get cleaned up. I'm filthy."

Iruka set down his cup, "I haven't been back here in weeks. Why don't you grab a shower while I get the bed ready, then I'll get washed up real quick."

Kakashi was lost in thought as he walked into the bathroom and turned on the water for a shower. He was glad Iruka had taken him back here; he didn't want to be alone right now. He desperately needed sleep. Back to back missions without letting himself rest any more than needed to not collapse had worn him down. While he was washing his hair, he heard the door open for a minute and then close. When he was done with his shower, he saw that Iruka had placed a clean towel and a pair of boxers on the counter.

When Kakashi stepped out of the bathroom in the boxers with his forehead protector over his eye, Iruka smiled at him, "Lie down, I'll be right out." Without another word, Iruka walked into the bathroom and the sounds of running water resumed. Kakashi walked into the bedroom and sat down on the futon covered with fresh bedding. He was used to his bed, but the futon was comfortable. The bedroom was odd; it seemed like a place Iruka had never really made his own. Plain walls reflected against mirror squares on the other wall. He relaxed into the blankets, closing his eyes and listening to the sound of the running water.

He knew hunger would hit him in the morning, but for now, the tea and cookies had combined with the impression of being clean and somewhere soft to make him feel very relaxed. When the water turned off and he heard Iruka walking towards the bedroom, Kakashi couldn't help but smile.

Iruka walked in wearing a pair of boxer briefs with the kanji for 'Handle with care' written on them in several places. Kakashi smiled at that, "I didn't know you came with directions."

Iruka sat down on the futon next to Kakashi, "I'm not that complicated." He reached over and turned off the light on the short table next to the futon.

Kakashi looked around the room, suddenly surprised at how the place looked. The moonlight was streaming in through the window and hitting the mirrors on the far wall. The light off the mirrors reflected onto bare white walls bathing everything in soft moonlight. "It's beautiful."

Iruka just pulled Kakashi down next to him as he pulled a blanket over both of them, "It's relaxing." He touched his hand to a sharp spike on the back of the table and pressed the bloodied finger to a portion of the wall that previously seemed blank. A quick line of glowing blue spread out along previously unseen writing on the walls, glowing for a second until it faded back to nothing. "We're safe in here." He held his finger for a moment to stop the bleeding.

Kakashi exposed his sharingan eye for a second, seeing the protection seals encircling the room. He recovered the eye and gently ran his hand through Iruka's hair, "I think you are very complicated."

Iruka looked over at him, "Really?"

Nodding, his whispered into the other man's neck, "You're always surprising me." He wrapped his arms around the younger man, nuzzling into his neck. "I missed you."

With a purr, Iruka snuggled into the nuzzling, "I missed you, too." Strong tan fingers ran through pale silver hair.

Kakashi took a deep breath, whispering against Iruka's neck, "I had a talk with Sasuke before my last mission." Iruka didn't question him, he just brushed his fingers through Kakashi's hair, letting him talk or not talk at his own pace. "I tried to tell him that revenge destroys people." Kakashi moved to be leaning on his elbows looking into Iruka's eyes. "He asked if I would still feel the same if he killed the one I love most."

Iruka didn't say anything, just looking into Kakashi's visible eye, watching how the pale light flickered across his pale skin. "I told him those people have already been killed."

Iruka reached out his hand to brush across Kakashi's cheek, still not saying anything.

Kakashi placed a hand over Iruka's hand on his cheek. "You said you were falling in love with me."

Iruka nodded, "I am."

Kakashi sighed, "I think I might have lied to Sasuke. I kept thinking of you while I was gone."

Iruka pulled Kakashi down into a kiss, gently brushing his lips across the other man's, "Is it such a bad thing?"

Kakashi shook his head as he pressed his lips back into Iruka's, gently wrapping his arms around the younger man. "Are you sure that you know what you're getting into?" He backed off a few inches to look into the chuunin's eyes. "I am in the bingo books of many countries. I have many enemies, and I have it on good authority that I am rather fucked up."

Iruka just pulled him towards him. "Stop thinking, start feeling. How do you feel?"

Kakashi stayed motionless for a minute or two, his eye was staring into Iruka's brown eyes. "That I've spent every moment since I woke up and you weren't in my bed wanting to ravish you?"

Iruka laughed deep in his throat, "That sounds like a line from Icha Icha." With a seductive smile, Iruka purred, "Why don't you show me."

Kakashi pinned Iruka to the futon with a firm kiss, his lips pressing into Iruka's. Kakashi pressed his tongue against Iruka's lips, demanding entrance. He delved into Iruka's mouth, feeling and tasting the intoxicating kiss.

Iruka kissed Kakashi back with all of his abilities. Lips and tongues meeting. Teeth clicking when they got out of alignment. His hands held the silver haired jounin close to him, tasting all of the older man as they wrestled for control of the kiss, neither willing to be submissive.

Kakashi pinned the other man down, straddling his hips as he pressed Iruka's shoulders down. "I said I wanted to ravish you, and that's what I'm going to do."

Iruka smirked, "Oh, really?" His playful tone was obvious, "And what if I decide I should be the one doing the ravishing."

"I have you pinned."

Iruka partially closed his eyes and brought his hips up, rubbing himself against a very sensitive part of Kakashi.

The jounin gasped at the contact. In that brief moment, Iruka rolled Kakashi and himself over trying to get the top position. Kakashi gripped onto Iruka rolling over again so he was back on top, but somehow in the roll, Iruka managed to get his hand down to Kakashi's legs. The chuunin ran his hand up the man's thigh. Before the jounin could re-establish dominance, Iruka was licking at him in a way that made the older man unable to think, let alone move. His motivation to win the wrestling match was gone.

As Iruka ran his tongue along Kakashi, he looked up at the man, "Lover, this is my preferred arena. I might be outclassed on a battlefield, but in a bedroom…" He dropped his head back down and did a combination of sucking and purring that left Kakashi speechless.

Kakashi let out a low moan as his fingers entwined into Iruka's dark hair. He let himself be pushed back onto the wooden floor, concentrating on the feel of Iruka's mouth. He moaned, "Iruka, do that again."

Iruka laughed and redid the combination of sucking and purring. As Kakashi gasped, Iruka kissed up his stomach paying attention to each and every muscle across the jounin's chest mumbling against the skin, "Kakashi, You are incredible." He ran his tongue from the bottom of Kakashi's ribs up to his collarbone biting down on it.

Kakashi wrapped his arms around Iruka. "You are incredible, look at you." He rolled Iruka onto his back, kissing the other man's shoulders and chest. "You taste incredible, you sound incredible. You make me want to take you."

Iruka whispered into the jounin's ear, "I want you to make love to me."

Kakashi almost said something like 'that's what I said.' But then he saw the look in Iruka's eyes. Normally a shinobi would have defenses up and emotions hidden; Iruka didn't have any of that. His eyes were wide open, and in the reflection of the pale moonlight Kakashi could see this was not something to be trifled with. Iruka wasn't asking for sex, sure he was promising sex, hot passionate incredible sex, but what his eyes were begging for was more.

For a moment, Kakashi felt fear. It had been so long since he had loved anyone, no not physically -- emotionally. Then Kakashi realized, he didn't fear loving Iruka, it was something else making him scared. He wrapped his arms around the younger man, pulling him into a deep kiss. Carefully he picked him up and carried him back to the futon. Laying him down on the deep red blankets, Kakashi started to kiss down the man's neck. He tasted every inch of the tan skin. His lips worshiped the younger man, clothes tossed aside to let him not miss and inch of warm, tan skin.

Slowly, Kakashi kissed his way back up to Iruka's lips. He moaned into the younger man's mouth as their bodies moved in perfect rhythm. Iruka's fingers ran down Kakashi's back as the chuunin arched under Kakashi, causing another intense wave of feeling to pass through the jounin's body. In a breathy whisper, Iruka moaned, "Take me." The chuunin nipped at Kakashi's lips, his body tense with need.

Gently he kissed him, appreciating every whisper and moan. Iruka gasped and in a trembling voice almost begged, "Please, Kakashi. I need you." Kakashi's willpower ran out and he found himself unable to resist the man in bed with him.

Kakashi found everything except the man under him disappearing from his mind. It might have been hours or only minutes, everything just blended together as Kakashi worshipped his tan lover, bringing him as much pleasure as he was able before everything became too much.

As soon as the tension left his shoulders, Kakashi collapsed onto Iruka, panting as he tried to catch his breath. The tan skin under his pale cheek was wet with sweat and Kakashi couldn't think of anything that had ever felt better than being held by this man. Kakashi realized then that he had done exactly what Iruka had really wanted, that had been much more than just sex. As he snuggled into the younger man, "I love you, Iruka." The last thing he saw before falling asleep was the smile on Iruka's face as he completely relaxed.

_-------------------- Notes ------------------------_

_Please review, I would love to know what people are thinking of this._


	30. Chapter 30

_Disclaimer – If I owned Naruto, there would be a swimsuit issue._

_Spoilers – This contains spoilers for the anime and manga. Spoilers up to MANGA chapter 238_

_This has been a broadcast of the scribbles alert system, we now return you to your regularly scheduled reading_

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Water Runs Red – Chapter 30

Kakashi woke up when a warm ray of sun fell into his eyes, causing him to roll enough to get his head under the pillow. Since he was moving anyway, wrapping his arms tightly around the man sleeping next to him seemed like a great idea. He wasn't a genius for nothing.

Iruka snuggled into Kakashi as the tan man tried to move more into the sunbeam. With a little sleepy rearranging, they managed to position themselves so Kakashi was in the shade and Iruka was in the sun.

After fully enjoying waking up slowly for a change, Kakashi sat up as he realized he over slept. He leaned over and kissed the chuunin next to him, but was pulled back into lying down as tan arms wrapped around him, "Kashi, you're warm."

From how the chuunin was burrowing in Kakashi's chest, he assumed being 'warm' was a good thing. At some point, Kakashi decided that Obito would forgive him for not making it out to the monument and instead decided that watching with the sharingan eye as Iruka snuggled up to him would be something Obito would appreciate. He briefly wondered what his old teammate would say if he saw him in bed with a handsome man who he loved deeply. Hell, he wondered what Obito would say if he knew Kakashi was deeply in love, or in love at all for that matter.

It was around noon when the men were disturbed from their dozing by a knock at the door. Iruka pushed himself up on his elbows. "I'll be right back." He leaned over and kissed Kakashi before kicking a few piles of clothes from the night before. finding where his underwear had ended up, he pulled them back on. He reached into one of the drawers of his dresser and pulled out pair of dark olive green khaki shorts and pulled them on, buttoning them as he reached the door to the bedroom. Kakashi couldn't help but watch him leave, quickly disabling the ward on the room. Part of him didn't think Iruka knew how sexy he looked with his shorts barely held up by his hipbones, but part of him knew his lover knew exactly how desirable it looked.

Kakashi heard Iruka open the door, and then say, "Natsumi-san." He quickly pulled on the borrowed boxers and grabbed a pair of shorts from the same drawer that Iruka had raided. As he was getting dressed, he listened to the conversation in the other room.

"Ah, Iruka, were you still sleeping? The mission ended quite a while ago." The woman's voice was familiar to Kakashi but he was having a hard time placing it. "I would have thought even a chuunin would have recovered by now." Kakashi really wanted to place that voice; he didn't like anyone talking to his Iruka like that.

"You have a reason for being here?" Iruka sounded annoyed, which was very understandable with how the woman was acting.

"Morino-san wanted me to drop off this message for you." Kakashi swore he could hear the smirk on her face. "I see you have a few more love bites on you than last time I saw you. Maybe you should have gotten some rest before going and seeing your girlfriend."

Iruka's voice had dropped in tone, "Do you have any other reason to be here other than dropping off this envelope, which you have managed to successfully accomplish?"

Kakashi couldn't make out the flippant remark as the woman left. He did however hear Iruka stalk back towards the bedroom. When the man walked back into the room, he looked pissed.

Kakashi walked over to him. "What was that all about?"

"I hate that woman, if I am never on another mission with her again in my life it will be too soon."

"Who is she?"

"Minamino Natsumi, the ANBU that Tsunade sent me with on my last mission."

He raised an eyebrow. "That bad?"

Iruka rolled his eyes. "The near constant talk of how she's a jônin and an ANBU and out ranks me and how I am only a chuunin and sure the mission scroll said I was in charge but obviously that couldn't be right." He took a deep breath, "And she has got it in her head that I have some cute little girlfriend, and I was not going to inform her of reality since I'm sure she isn't the type to keep her mouth shut."

Kakashi smiled. "Well I know the truth."

Iruka's frown turned to a smile. "Really? You think you know who gave me these bite marks? I'm starting to feel like a summoning scroll."

Kakashi wrapped his arms around his lover and gently kissed each of the bite marks, "I'm sorry. You just taste so good. Besides, I think you got me back with just as much damage."

Iruka slipped out of Kakashi's arms, smiling. "I did." With a cocky smile, he opened the letter from Ibiki. "I guess I can hold my own against a jônin pretty well." He pulled out the papers from the envelope and quickly read them. "We have a meeting to attend in the T&I building at three."

Kakashi looked over at the paper. "Do you know what it's about?"

"I need to brief everyone on the mission I just completed to Rock and you need to brief on Sasuke's running off to Orochimaru. I'll probably have to go through the old information on Anko when she went with him."

"So why the hurried meeting?"

"It seems several ANBU captains are going to be there. Evidently Tsunade wants ANBU to serve as backup for MABU." He shrugged. "I don't think that's going to go over too well."

Kakashi was looking at Iruka, "I still don't see what the hurry is for this meeting."

Iruka sighed, "I was on a mission. Orochimaru wants one of the Konoha bloodline limits bad enough the snake bastard can taste it. That's why he wants Sasuke. Turns out we most likely have a missing shinobi that was captured a few years ago."

Kakashi looked at his lover. "Another Uchiha?"

He shook his head. "Nope, a Hyuuga. We have a credible lead, and Tsunade is sending us out in force. She was expecting something like this, so we've had plans set up for a while on what would be the best way to infiltrate that country."

"You've been busy."

Iruka nodded. "I have been. We should get some lunch." Iruka wrapped his arms around Kakashi. "I need to get there at about two to go over some stuff with Ibiki, but until then, we should get something to eat."

Kakashi smirked. "I should probably stop in at my apartment and get some of my own clothes."

Iruka nodded. "Yeah, you go get dressed. Where do you want to meet?"

Kakashi named off a small restaurant not too far from the ANBU headquarters and they agreed to meet there in thirty minutes.

While Kakashi was gone, Iruka quickly packed a bag of what he'd need for the meeting. For some reason, Tsunade wanted him to actually inform everyone instead of having Ibiki do it, so he'd need to be in his MABU uniform. He removed it from its spot under the floorboards under the futon. Carefully he made sure the entire uniform was there as well as the weapons that went with it. He threw on a muted green T-shirt and slipped on his sandals as he made his way through the summer heat carrying the bag.

He reached the restaurant first and grabbed a table. Knowing the jônin would probably be late; he ordered tea to sip in the meantime. About fifteen minutes later, Kakashi sat down in the other chair and ordered the food. Kakashi was once again dressed in his normal uniform. They chatted during the lunch about the same type of things they would have talked about before. They discussed Kakashi's friends, the summer weather, and the upcoming festival, but they did not once mention their joint students, that was still too sore of a subject for lunchtime conversation.

To anyone watching it would seem like nothing more than two shinobi acquaintances having lunch. No touching, no teasing, no anything that could be taken wrong. About an hour later they both got up and walked over towards the ANBU building and Ibiki's office.

Iruka walked into the man's office since the door was open with Kakashi following him. Kakashi closed the door behind them as Iruka walked up to Ibiki. "So what's up with this meeting?"

"She's sending you guys off tonight. Team of six, You, Kakashi, Izumo, Kotetsu and two members yet to be decided. We lucked out on the Uchiha at least. Seems Orochimaru already swapped bodies so the genin that slowed the sound-nins down bought us another three years before the sharingan could fall into Orochimaru hands. She is sending you guys to bring back the Hyuuga, the Uchiha would be an added bonus, but we don't expect it."

"So it was her idea that I inform everyone about the information we have on the Hyuuga?"

Ibiki nodded. "I explained that normally I do any informing to keep the operatives as covert as possible. She insisted that's what the uniforms are for." He shrugged. "Seems like a useless risk to me, but she insisted. I don't think I've had one of you guys in uniform in years."

Iruka nodded. "Yeah, I don't think I've put that thing on in a good five years."

Kakashi looked at Iruka and shifted slightly in place.

Iruka looked to Kakashi. "You're all right with being my protection on this mission?"

Kakashi nodded. "Of course."

Ibiki shook his head. "Now you two behave."

Iruka frowned. "I was thinking. You know how we have the full eye contacts; do you think they could do one that wouldn't be see-through?"

Ibiki looked at Kakashi. "You think that Kakashi could blend in?"

Iruka nodded. "I mean if his eye looked damaged instead of a Sheringan and if his hair wasn't silver, I think he could pull it off."

Kakashi raised an eyebrow.

Ibiki nodded. "It would be a good idea to see if it's possible. I don't know what you guys are going to encounter out there, so it could be a very good idea."

"Should I get worried when you two discuss me like I'm not here?"

Iruka smirked and pretended to continue to ignore him. "I know I have some clothes that would fit him. Hell, we could get him to be discreet."

Ibiki shook his head. "Go look into it. I'll see you at the meeting. Do not be late, either of you."

The two men walked out of Ibiki's office, with Kakashi following Iruka. "Where are we going?"

"One of the doctors does a lot of work with contacts. While a genjutsu would change appearance, obviously actually changing things, but I think we have something that would actually block the sharingan so you wouldn't need to cover it, at least for a short period of time. Just in case."

"Just in case?"

"Just in case things go terribly wrong and I need someone to extract me." His tone was hollow; it wasn't something he liked talking about. Whenever one of them needed to be extracted, it was normally a bad thing.

Kakashi's visible eye looked grim, and Iruka wondered when did he become so good at reading expressions on that slight amount of visible face. After a brief conversation with the doctor, Iruka left Kakashi there excusing himself to get ready.

Kakashi was left with the doctor, who believed he could have a short use contact ready within a few hours and that he could even get it to look like Kakashi's other eye. He wasn't sure whether he should go for the 'damaged eye' look or normal eye, finally deciding on 'normal'. If it worked, it could prove to be something very useful.

He made his way to where the meeting was on the top floor. It was one of the larger conference rooms in the building. When he got there, several of the ANBU captains were already there. He knew who everyone was of course, it hadn't been that long since he had been in the ranks, and he was still called back when he was needed.

He took a seat next to a few of the ANBU he knew relatively well. Falcon looked over at him. "I didn't know they dragged you back for this."

"Bah, that old witch won't let me have a moment's peace and you know it."

Raccoon shook his head. "You better not let Hokage-sama hear you saying that."

Just as Kakashi was about to come up with a witty reply, Tsunade's voice could be heard, "Not let me hear what?" The Hokage walked into the meeting room followed by her two Chuunin assistants, Izumo and Kotetsu.

Kakashi reached behind his head and crinkled his eye in a smiling gesture. "Ahh, I was just telling Falcon and Raccoon here that I forgot the Sake from Wave that I picked up for you back at my apartment."

She looked at him. "Really, you lie as badly now as you did when you were ten, brat."

There were a few chuckles at that and it seemed like most of the ANBU captains were now present as well as four additional ANBU members. Kakashi assumed they were ones that had been selected as potentials on the mission.

Tsunade sat down and glanced at a clock on the wall. "This is a sign of something odd, Hatake."

When he looked up at her, she continued, "For once you aren't the last person."

He did his best 'I'm Innocent' look ... at least as good as he could do behind a mask and the forehead protector. Of course, with a crowd used to reading expressions behind ANBU masks, he actually managed to convey the feeling. Falcon just shook his head at Kakashi.

The door opened and Ibiki walked in, followed by another figure. If Kakashi didn't know that it was Iruka, he would have never guessed it.

Iruka was dressed in a traditional MABU uniform. Kakashi hadn't seen one in years, and he had never seen the male version. His torso was completely hidden by a skintight long-sleeved shirt with the high collar that could turn into a half mask. It was similar to the ANBU shirts in that regard, but this shirt was deep red and shimmered as if it were made of a fabric like silk. The pants were made of the same material, and were just as tight.

The skintight material was covered in many places by what seemed to be decorative armor. Unlike the functional armor of the ANBU uniforms, this armor was black leather with an unnecessary amount of buckles. Iruka's chest was covered in black leather armor, as were his forearms. His hands were covered in fingerless gloves that matched the armor as well. His left shin and his right thigh were also covered in the armor. The unarmored thigh had a bright red cord braided around it

The open toed boot on the left was just black leather, but the one on the right had the same red cording swapped around it and braided almost up to Iruka's knee. Across his back were double swords in deep red and black.

The mask was a simple white mask with only two Hiragana figures on it 'Ma' and 'Bu'. The eyes that could be seen though the mask however were not what was expected. One eye was a very pale blue and the other was Iruka's natural eye color of dark brown. It was a very disconcerting look.

Iruka's hair was not its normal brown either. It had been styled with some sort of red gel making it almost look like it was blood soaked, but the red tone was too jewel toned for it to be blood. Several strands of hair were over the near pristine mask and the rest was mussed and spiked in a very un-Iruka like way.

The room went silent when they saw the man in the MABU uniform behind Ibiki.

Kakashi noticed that Iruka was definitely altering his chakra signature. Actually, he was being obvious about altering it. He seemed to be phasing through the ones that Kakashi had seen him use before on missions.

All eyes were watching the MABU operative, some of the older ANBU straightened up but the younger ones seemed to be on edge expecting an attack or something. It was then that Kakashi realized the younger ANBU had never seen a MABU uniform and probably thought it was another country's ANBU or something.

Tsunade cleared her throat, "Ibiki-san, MABU-san, thank you for joining us." As both men took their seats, Tsunade continued, ignoring the rustling caused by mention of MABU, "A plot against our village by Orochimaru has recently been uncovered." Everyone in the room became painfully silent.

Ibiki turned to Iruka. "MABU-san, perhaps you should start."

Iruka nodded. "Yes of course." His voice didn't even sound like Iruka, he was speaking with a slightly deeper tone and the slightest of grass accents, "As everyone may or may not be aware, I am a member of the Mayakashi Senjutsu Tokushu Butai, or MABU. As you are no doubt aware, Orochimaru has been trying to get his hands on a bloodline limit for some time now. While to date he has not been successful, recent information has come to light that a member of the Hyuuga family that had previously been thought killed in action has actually been a captive of the snake."

There was shifting around the table. "We have captured several people involved in this and finally have enough information to launch a rescue attempt. Unfortunately, MABU does not have the operatives to go it alone and we need to bring in some backup."

One of the ANBU captains spoke up, "So you need us to be the muscle." His tone made it sound like he thought the ANBU forces were too good for that.

Iruka glared at the man's mask. Suddenly his chakra signature went to nothing as he took a step forward. Several of the younger ANBU moved when suddenly the man in front of them showed chakra cloaking on par with the best of them. "ANBU-san," Iruka's tone never left its polite form, "Konoha shinobi have never hesitated to take a mission when the situation is so dire. The fact that the country of lightning seems to be involved and that this more than likely ties into the failed kidnapping of Hinata Hyuuga makes this an ANBU matter as well. This is even truer if a Konoha shinobi with Byakuugan is in the hands of Orochimaru's forces and another village is working with him, Hatake-san has additional information to add."

Kakashi nodded. "For the record, I will be one of the shinobi being sent to back up the MABU operatives on this mission. Yesterday one of my students went missing-nin and defected to Orochimaru. Uchiha Sasuke has delivered himself, and his Sharingan, to Sound. I was unable to retrieve him."

All eyes, whether masked or not turned to face Kakashi. Ibiki cleared his throat. "We have information that Orochimaru had already been forced to change bodies before the Uchiha reached him, thus we most likely have a window of time before he will be able to switch bodies again."

Iruka nodded behind his mask. "MABU forces have uncovered that it takes a minimum of three years between transfers. We also have reason to believe that Orochimaru will be incapacitated for a period of time after the transfer, so now is the time to launch our mission."

One of the younger captains spoke up. "I don't see how it is possible for this 'MABU' to have done all of this without many of us being aware of the organization's existence."

Falcon looked over at the young captain with the rat mask. "Rat, settle down. Just as we have methods most shinobi don't, so do MABU forces."

Kakashi leaned back in his chair. "You are too young to know this, but much of our information during the last war came from MABU forces. At that time they worked with ANBU for backup as well."

Iruka nodded. "While ANBU members are well known for their fighting abilities and power," he went with the compliment them approach, "MABU forces are specialized in more subtle methods of information gathering. Unfortunately, many of us lack the power to get ourselves out of a tight spot if things go poorly. It is in these situations that tradition dictates that ANBU is teamed up with us."

Tsunade stood up. "I am sending a force out tonight under cover of darkness. This will be a civilian clothes mission for infiltration and movement without attracting attention. It will be a six-person mission with the three MABU operatives as well as Hatake and two members of ANBU. Only those people on this mission will know the identity of the MABU operatives. MABU's very existence is not something often talked about so this information should be treated with the highest security."

"Also, there is every likelihood that there will be retaliation for this. We will have additional ANBU patrols between here and sound starting tomorrow and until further notice. This means longer shifts for everyone since we are desperately short of shinobi."

A sign of how disciplined the forces were was in the fact there was no grumbling. "We may also end up in a tricky diplomatic situation with cloud. Knowing that the first member of the backup is Hatake, and that the need for discretion and blending in is paramount on this mission, I am now open to suggestions for who would be the best to send on this." She gestured at the four ANBU members who were not captains. "These four have been asked here on behalf of MABU since they have proven themselves in the past, but any suggestions are welcome."

It took nearly an hour of going over people's records before the people going on the mission were finalized. The final decision was Falcon, based upon Kakashi's recommendation and Ferret, who was one of the four asked there by MABU. He had worked with Izumo before and was highly recommended.

Iruka stood up. "Those who are going should come with me to be briefed, Hokage-sama?"

She stood. "Falcon, Ferret, Hatake, be in my office in fifteen minutes." She stood up and with a brief thank you walked out, flanked on either side by her two chuunin assistants.

Iruka repositioned the sword on his back and then bowed to the assembled ANBU members before, with that he turned and walked out of the room. Kakashi was glad everyone was watching Iruka leave and not watching him. The skintight uniform did amazing things to Iruka's ass.

Kakashi stood up as everyone else stood, but he didn't immediately make his way to the door. Ibiki was one of the first to leave. Once there were only ANBU left, besides Kakashi, several ANBU members started to whisper about MABU and did anyone know it still existed and who they thought was in it. Kakashi was pleased to see neither Ferret nor Falcon were taking part in the gossip. Maybe Iruka wasn't being paranoid about keeping it a secret if even ANBU considered it gossip worthy.

_-------------------- Notes ------------------------_

_Please review, I would love to know what people are thinking of this. The story is now in its final third._


	31. Chapter 31

_Disclaimer – If I owned Naruto the filler would be over_

_Spoilers – This contains spoilers for the anime and manga. Spoilers up to MANGA chapter 238_

_Reader Notes-_

_In the next few chapters a lot of countries will be referred to so here is a handy bit of information_

_Cloud is the hidden village in the Country of Lightning_

_Mist is the hidden village in the country of Water_

_Wave is a country without a hidden village_

_Sound is the hidden village in Rice country; however most often it is simply referred to as Sound as if the country itself were sound_

_This has been a broadcast of the scribbles alert system, we now return you to your regularly scheduled reading._

------------------------- 31 -------------------------

Water Runs Red – Chapter 31

A few minutes later, after listening to how no one had any clue about MABU, Kakashi left the room with Falcon and Ferret, heading together to the Hokage's office. When they entered, the only people there were the Tsunade, Ibiki, Kotetsu, and Izumo.

The curtains in the room were pulled and the seal on them was obvious. Tsunade stood up, walked over to the door, and closed it. She turned back to the group as she activated a second seal for the door. "Our final member will be here in a second." Falcon and Ferret were watching Izumo and Kotetsu -- obviously wondering what the Hokage's assistants were still doing here.

The door to Tsunade's private area off the office opened and Iruka walked in, still in the MABU uniform, but with the mask clipped to his belt. His eyes were back to normal, and his hair was obviously just towel dried and hanging loose in a damp mess. Several of the buckles of the chest armor were undone with the leg armor and braided cord hung limply in his hands. As he walked in, he looked at Tsunade. "Thank you Tsunade-sama." He moved his neck, cracking the vertebrae.

Tsunade smiled. "Of course. Ferret, Falcon, there will not be masks on this mission." Both men took off their masks at the Hokage's direction, attaching them to their belts.

Tsunade cleared her throat. "Time for introductions. Kamizuki Izumo, Hagane Kotetsu, and Umino Iruka are the three MABU members to head this mission." She indicated each in turn. "Chiba Daisuke," She gestured to Ferret who gave a nod of recognition. "Okabe Tadashi," She glanced to Falcon who also nodded. "And everyone knows the Hatake brat," She waved dismissively to Kakashi who smirked under his mask.

Iruka walked up to the desk, took a scroll out from under his leather armor, and unrolled it to reveal a map. "This is our best intelligence from the interrogation of our most recent capture." He pointed to a spot on the map. "We believe the Hyuuga is being held here."

Izumo reached out a hand. "We've infiltrated this far before." He gestured to a small fishing village near the northern border of Sound, about ten scale miles from Iruka's position. "Unfortunately, my cover got blown there and the result was a rather messy extraction."

Iruka nodded. "The working plan is that we are going to travel to the land of Water posing as traders, avoid any Hidden Mist-nins if possible by going through this small backwater village in Water." He made another tap on the map. "MABU frequently use it since there are trade routes to the land of Lightning." He traced along a path from the Water village to a small village in the country of Lighting, much closer to their eventual target. "From here, we'll infiltrate into Sound. Their defenses seem to be at their highest on the Fire side, so by going in the back door our chances are the best. Any questions?"

Tadashi nodded. "Will we have forged documents?"

Iruka nodded. "Yes, Genma-san will take care of that now that the group is finalized. We're going to be traveling with Water documents."

Izumo glanced at Tadashi. "Can you do a Water accent?" He asked it in a perfect Water accent, imitating the soft t's and h's of a Mist-nin perfectly.

Iruka looked around at the three non-MABU members. "Good question. Can any of you do a Water dialect?"

Daisuke shook his head and Tadashi frowned. "Not well, definitely not well enough for a long conversation. For a few words I could, but …" he glanced at Kakashi who was also shaking his head.

Iruka frowned. "I have to remember to add dialects to academy training."

Kakashi huffed. "You have your hands full keeping those kids from killing themselves with weapons."

Iruka smiled. "True." He frowned down at the map. "OK, we aren't going to teach anyone dialects in the next few hours so we might as well not worry about it. We will team up in pairs. Izumo, you have worked with Daisuke-san before, so you two are a pair. I have worked with Hatake-san before, so I will team with him, and so Tadashi-san that puts you with Kotetsu. This arrangement will make sure no one is without someone that can pull off the dialect."

Tsunade nodded. "I need to get back to the hospital and see how the genin are doing." She walked over to Kakashi and placed a hand on his shoulder. "I'll keep an eye on your kids for you."

Ibiki stood up. "I'll have your documents ready for you guys by ten. Someone just stop by my office and pick them up."

Iruka nodded. "OK, Hatake-san has some custom equipment to pick up, so we will pick up the documents as well. Everyone take this time to pack and we will meet at eleven on the road south of town. We'll be going straight through without stopping to get to the shore around sunset so we can catch an early morning boat over to Water." He gave everyone a quick rundown of what their identities would be and how to dress.

With a few nods, everyone split off to get ready for the mission. Iruka and Kakashi left together. Between Iruka dying Kakashi's hair blond (you wouldn't think hair that pale would be so incredibly difficult to dye) and getting packed for the mission, the two shinobi didn't have any time to talk.

They went to the T&I building and picked up all the paperwork as well as funds to use on the trip. Kakashi's contact lens was also ready. To see how it worked, Kakashi took off his forehead protector and slipped the contact in. It was actually a solid material so it stopped the sharingan from activating.

Kakashi blinked and looked at himself in the mirror. He wasn't used to anything in his eye, or Obito's eye, whatever you wanted to call it. He was even less acclimated to the image in the mirror. He had to admit, he didn't look like anyone would recognize him. His dyed blond hair was flopped on top of his head. The repeated dying had softened it so it didn't perform its gravity-defying act. He still had the same scar over his eye, but with two blue/grey eyes looking back at him, it was almost surreal. With only Iruka in the room, he pulled down the mask and looked. He frowned slightly as he looked at his reflection. It was just too weird.

Iruka sat down next to him. "It'll take some getting used to." He placed a hand on Kakashi's shoulder, gripping him slightly with his fingers.

Kakashi just nodded. "Yeah, I'm going to take it back out for a bit." He removed the contact and placed it back in its case.

Iruka was unusually silent as they got into their outfits for the mission. Simple pants with a yukata styled shirt -- non-descript business clothes. Kakashi had his sleeveless black ANBU tank under his with the mask pulled up. Iruka knew the man wouldn't stop hiding his face until it was absolutely necessary. Instead of the usual forehead protector, he had a simple eye patch.

They made their way quietly to the meeting spot after grabbing some yakatori as they walked through the village. They were the first ones to get there. Kakashi finally broke the silence, "I was surprised you didn't do anything to alter your appearance."

Iruka looked puzzled for a moment. "I guess I didn't, did I? I didn't notice." He frowned. "I guess I am so used to being undercover I don't even know what I really am any more sometimes. Then again, everything seems to be conspiring to make me live a lie every waking moment. I must be getting immune to deception -- danger of the job and all."

Kakashi nodded, hearing the sad tone in his lover's voice, glancing off into the distance as he sensed a chakra signature approaching, "Are you still thinking of quitting MABU?"

Iruka nodded. "I am. I don't know. We need to recruit more people. Maybe with Tsunade-sama in charge it will be easier to get people in. I just don't know if I can take living a lie 24/7, and that's what she wants."

As Iruka was talking, Tadashi landed in the clearing, dressed as he had been instructed. He remained silent, obviously not wanting to interrupt the conversation.

Iruka sighed. "Maybe after this mission things will calm down at least. One night in my own bed in the past how many months isn't good." He looked over at Tadashi. "Tadashi-san" He reached into his pack and handed over the documents that Genma had forged.

"Iruka, Kakashi." Tadashi looked at the two men, returning a nod to Kakashi as the now blond haired man nodded to him. "Iruka was right, Kakashi. A few changes and you really are not as recognizable." He smiled at Iruka. "Please forgive me for Rat's outburst in the meeting. He used to be one of my squad members and I thought I had taught him better than that."

Iruka shrugged. "It's fine. I can't expect people to know how thin MABU is spread right now."

Tadashi smiled. "I hadn't realized you hadn't been in the village for such a long time. I knew you had just gotten back from a mission with Natsumi-san."

Iruka tensed visibly at the mention of that woman.

Kakashi suddenly looked up. "Natsumi, she's Crane, I knew I recognized her voice. That had been bothering me trying to place her."

Tadashi nodded. "She was talking about how she was sent off to Rock with some know it all chuunin who kept trying to boss her around."

Iruka put a hand to his head, messaging the scar across his nose. Iruka looked up as the other three came into sight. Daisuke, Izumo, and Kotetsu were talking like old friends. In an effort to get the conversation off Natsumi, Iruka quickly handed out documents and then shouldered his pack, "Everyone ready?"

When no one said no, he gestured for everyone to follow him and took off towards Water. He took off through the trees at what he assumed was an ANBU type pace. With simple hand gestures, Izumo and Kotetsu took up positions on either side of the group.

Tadashi was looking at Kakashi as the chuunin seemed to take control of the situation, but Kakashi was going along with it. Daisuke made an offhand comment, "Guess keeping a team together since graduation pays off on teamwork."

Kotetsu huffed, "Yeah, if you stay together that long you know your teammates have enough blackmail on you that you have to behave."

"Like that time you got glued to a roof?" Izumo smiled as he helpfully supplied an example.

"Behave sweetie, I got those pictures of you on that mission to Wind, and they are stashed someplace you'll never find them."

And with that, the bantering continued. Kakashi darted forward a bit to speak to Iruka as they ran. "Is it OK for them to talk?"

Iruka just smiled. "We're still in Fire -- it's good for them. They haven't let their guards down. They're as over worked as I am if not worse."

They continued with Izumo and Kotetsu trading friendly barbs. Kakashi was sure the two ANBU would agree with him that they now knew way too much about the men's wardrobe, eating habits, and other embarrassing moments. Nothing truly bad, just the type of things two people that had known each other all their lives could throw at each other. Occasionally Iruka would correct one of them or the other. Things like 'No that happened at Izumo's fifth birthday party not Anko's' and such.

Shortly before sunrise, Izumo's chakra flickered and Kotetsu and him both went quiet. Without a word all three chuunin stopped on tree branches, and closed ranks as the three jônin were left to backtrack a few leaps.

Izumo was pointing off towards the north. "I think there are twelve of them."

Kotetsu was looking at Iruka. "Should I scout it?"

Iruka shook his head. "Give me a moment." He closed his eyes. "It doesn't feel organized, also feels weak. I am pretty sure it's civilians. If we drop a bit to the south we shouldn't add on much more than an hour to our arrival."

Kakashi glanced to the north; now that it was brought to his attention, he could tell someone was that way, actual numbers weren't that certain. Iruka wasn't lying, the chuunin were alert even though they had been talking.

Iruka looked at the jônin. "Anyone have anything against us just ducking down south a bit and ignoring whatever is north of us?"

When no one had a problem with that, they took off towards the south before resuming their westward course. About two hours later, the chuunin resumed their talking. This time Iruka took part in teasing Kotetsu about his singing voice.

Around noon, they stopped in a small clearing by a stream. Kakashi looked around and nodded, it was obvious why Iruka stopped the group there. "How long are we going to rest?"

Iruka shrugged. "Long enough to fill our water bottles and try to swallow some ration bars unless everyone would like a longer stop, and we could hunt up some food, but we'd need to go even faster after the stop."

Kotetsu frowned. "I only have Leaf ration bars left so my vote is for hunt."

"Anko raided my pack last week so I vote for hunt too." Izumo was frowning.

Daisuke shrugged. "I'm a pretty good hunter."

"I have nothing against rounding up some real food; we're still in Fire after all." Tadashi gestured at Daisuke. "Daisuke is always a requested member on long missions since he is good at making sure everyone eats well."

Iruka glanced at Kakashi and getting only a shrug as a response, he nodded. "OK, Daisuke, Kotetsu, and I will hunt. Izumo, fire pit, no smoke. Tadashi, Kakashi, patrol and guard." With that, everyone dispersed to take care of their assignments. Kakashi was the first to make it back to the campsite, a minute or so later Izumo walked in with a pile of dry wood. Kakashi helped him set up the fire.

Before lighting it, Izumo pulled out a kunai and pricked his finger. He did a quick seal in the dirt around the fire pit. Kakashi flipped up his eye patch to look with the Sharingan. "Interesting."

Izumo smiled. "Useful."

"So it stops the fire from smoking and being detected?"

Izumo nodded. "Also stops smells from traveling. That part is not perfect since once you take the food out of the circle it can be smelt."

"Still, really nice."

"Thanks."

Tadashi was the next one back; he walked over to Kakashi and Izumo. "Looks like this was a good place to stop and take a break."

Izumo nodded. "'Ruka is good at spotting clearings."

Tadashi looked down at the scrollwork around the now burning fire pit. "Kakashi? What's this?"

Izumo frowned. "It's a seal I put up to stop smoke and smell from traveling, it makes the fire less of a liability."

Tadashi looked at Kakashi who just nodded. Tadashi looked back at Izumo. "I'm sorry. I assumed. I must say, so far you MABU have surprised me."

Izumo smiled. "Thanks. I guess none of us are really used to working with other people."

Kakashi took the chance at conversation, "You, Kotetsu and Iruka were all on the same Genin team, right?"

He nodded. "Yeah, our mother's were teammates, so they kept us together when we managed to graduate."

Iruka laughed as he walked into the clearing holding a rabbit in one hand. "Yeah, I'm surprised after us they didn't change that policy."

Kotetsu came back walking with Daisuke and they both had fish. Izumo started to cook them.

With Iruka's prodding, everyone ate quickly and they were off on their way to Water with only about an hour of a stop. True to his word, Iruka pushed them the entire trip, trying to get them to go faster.

Kakashi couldn't help but to watch how Iruka was flying through the trees. Instead of taking the straightest route he was zigzagging a bit keeping a watch in both directions as the rest of the group stayed in a straight line to maximize speed. Shortly after sunset, Iruka held up a hand signaling everyone to stop.

He dropped to the forest floor. "It's about a half hour walk from here so no more tree-hopping." They paused to make sure their disguises were all right. Kakashi placed the contact in his eye and pocketed the eye patch. The only one in the group who didn't look when Kakashi pulled the mask down to his neck was Iruka. Tadashi for his part only glanced, but then he started watching Iruka with a look of curiosity.

The six men made their way through the forest until they reached the road to the fishing village. They reached the small collection of buildings, Kotetsu and Izumo were carrying on some conversation about a restaurant in wave rather loudly arguing about which dish was better. Iruka seemed content for those two to provide the ambiance of traveling conversation as he led them towards the inn near the docks.

They walked into the inn as a group, with Izumo and Kotetsu still arguing, this time about which beer tastes better. Kakashi didn't miss the eye roll that Iruka had given them when they started into that conversation.

Iruka walked up to the girl at the counter, Kotetsu followed him. As Iruka was talking to the girl about getting rooms, Kotetsu was smiling at her and trying to interrupt Iruka with asking the girl questions about herself.

Finally, after Iruka apologized for about the fourth time for the behavior of his little brother, they had keys for two rooms. They also had several suggestions as to where to go and eat. Kakashi almost grabbed the spiky haired chuunin when the man leaned on the counter and asked the girl, "So where would you like me to take you out to eat?"

The only thing that stopped Kakashi from doing something was that the girl giggled and replied, "I'll think about it, my shift is over in an hour."

Iruka dragged Kotetsu off and they made their way upstairs to where their rooms were. The all walked into the first room. They only had been able to obtain two rooms. Iruka immediately got down to business. "Ko, I want you to report back to me after your dinner. The rest of us will go track down some food. As for room assignments, of the pairs, Kakashi and I will be the one split. Kakashi, I want you to keep watch on Izumo tonight. It's a full moon so he will be dead to the world tonight if anything happens. Let's get some dinner so we can get some sleep." With that, they dropped off excess stuff in each room and everyone except Kotetsu left to go find a restaurant to eat at.

Dinner was quiet with Iruka and Izumo doing most of the talking since they were the only ones who could do the accent. After dinner, the five walked back to the hotel. There was a different girl at the front desk so it was assumed that Kotetsu was out. As they walked up the stairs, Iruka grabbed Izumo's arm and helped him up. When they reached the rooms, Iruka handed over an obviously exhausted Izumo to Daisuke, "Make sure he gets to bed. I need to borrow Kakashi for a few so you're in charge of him."

Iruka, Tadashi and Kakashi walked into the other hotel room. The second the door shut, Iruka was all business. "Kashi, I need you to keep a good eye on Izumo. Ibiki has been working him too hard. If anything happens in the meantime, please get me."

Kakashi nodded. "No problem. The man seems exhausted. Is that normal?"

Iruka sighed. "Normally Izumo isn't sent on missions around the full moon. His sleeping patterns are lunar, full moon he gets tired."

Kakashi stood up. "I'll keep a good eye on your teammate."

Iruka smiled. "Thanks. We had better all get some rest. I'll brief you guys on what Kotetsu finds out in the morning."

Kakashi left, leaving Tadashi and Iruka together. Iruka frowned as the door closed. The first thing he did was take out the med kit from his pack ad start going through it.

Tadashi walked over to him. "Is something wrong?"

Iruka just sighed. "Something is wrong, and I have a bad feeling about this. I shouldn't have let him go off alone without a radio transmitter."

Tadashi nodded. "If there is anything I can do …"

Iruka shook his head. "No." He placed the last of several antitoxins on the desk. "I'm going to grab a shower. Kotetsu probably won't be back for a while anyways."

Tadashi just nodded as Iruka grabbed a pair of shorts and a shirt from his pack and walked into the bathroom. While the chuunin was taking a shower, Tadashi went through the items in the room. It was a very basic hotel room. It was not very traditional and had a small wooden desk, two nightstands and two full sized beds in it. Being the senior in rank he lay claim to the bed closer to the door incase there was any trouble, however unlikely that sounded.

Finally, Iruka came out of the bathroom; He was wearing a pair of loose tan shorts and a long sleeved dark green T-shirt. Tadashi was struck by how tired the chuunin looked. The Jônin frowned. "You really need to get some rest."

Iruka sat down on the bed that Tadashi hadn't claimed. "I'll be fine. The two boat rides should give us all some time to rest."

The jônin nodded and took his turn at grabbing a shower. When he came out, he saw Iruka slowly going through a Kata in slow motion. He was so used to seeing shinobi fly through the moves, trying to do them as fast as possible, but this one was obviously going much slower than he could.

Tadashi walked over to the his bed and sat down, noting an open container of ANBU bruise ointment on the little table between the two beds. He watched the chuunin go through his moves until the other man stopped and sat down on the other bed. Iruka looked at Tadashi. "You haven't asked many questions about this."

Tadashi nodded. "I was honestly hoping to get Kakashi alone and find out what he knew." He looked over at the chuunin. "You've kept a very close watch on … 'Kashi' since this started." For the chuunin's credit, he didn't show any surprise.

Iruka just smiled. "I've worked a lot with the medical nins that help develop various things for our work. Since Hatake's contact was a complex thing, I felt it best that I make sure things went smoothly."

Tadashi frowned. "You are very good at lying."

Iruka smiled. "Thank you." He obviously knew there was no point in pretending he wasn't.

Tadashi frowned. "I'm going to get some rest until that other chuunin gets back." With that, he stretched out on the bed, ignoring Iruka doing the same on the other bed. Tadashi had managed to fall into a light sleep when he was woken by Iruka getting up and opening the window. Iruka reached out the window and soon was helping Kotetsu in.

Tadashi sat up and flicked on the light. He watched as Iruka led and obviously inebriated Kotetsu over to the bed and started doing a quick med check up on him. Kotetsu went into a debrief mode that would have been something expected of an ANBU. Ignoring his own condition, the spiky haired man started to recite off cargo movements in and out of port. There was a long list of names along with how long since they had last been seen. Interspersed with this information was a short list of illegal drugs, evidently the chuunin was not just inebriated.

Iruka took Kotetsu's arm and carefully injected two of the chemicals he had set aside earlier. Finally, the debrief was done. Tadashi was impressed with how much information had been gathered, he just didn't know how much of it was useful.

Suddenly Iruka frowned at Kotetsu. "Don't you ever go out for that long without a transmitter on you ever again. I was about ready to go wasting all my chakra to find you."

Kotetsu looked down at the ground. "Sorry."

Iruka tapped his bare foot "What were you thinking?"

"I didn't expect to luck into a good source."

Iruka just sighed. "I'm giving us all transmitters in the morning to use just in case. I'd do it now, but I don't want to risk waking up Izumo."

"Maybe I should go take Kakashi's place in the other room.

"Hell no, you go get cleaned up. I split everyone up for a reason so everyone is going to sleep tonight."

"Just making the offer."

As Kotetsu walked off to get cleaned up, Iruka looked up at the ceiling. Tadashi looked over at him and Iruka sighed and did a slight bow. "Tadashi-san, sorry my teammate woke you up."

Tadashi shrugged. "I've never had to deal with lovers being on the same team." He noticed an odd look from Iruka for a second, but the other man quickly went back to looking at the ceiling.

"Oh, Kotetsu and Izumo."

"Who did you think I meant?"

Iruka just smiled. "I'm just tired. I can't even keep straight what day it is."

When Kotetsu came out of the shower and crawled into bed with Iruka without a second thought. Tadashi lay back down on his bed. He closed his eyes as the other two shinobi had a rather childish quick fight over who got what blanket and then quieted and went to sleep.

Tadashi replayed the conversations of the night through his mind a few times. Something was there that he was missing, but sleep overtook him before he could figure it out.

_-------------------- Notes ------------------------_

_I really want to know what people think. I have the next 2 chapters written and being edited right now, but for chapter 34 I really want to know what people are thinking. The story is almost over so if anyone has any questions they need answered, remind me of them sooner rather than later :) Also any input on characters on this mission I would love to hear. _


	32. Chapter 32

_Disclaimer – If I owned Naruto the filler would already be over._

_Spoilers – This contains spoilers for the anime and manga. Spoilers up to MANGA chapter 238_

_Special thank you to Chibinecco my ever hard working beta :)_

_This has been a broadcast of the scribbles alert system, we now return you to your regularly scheduled reading_

------------------------- 32 -------------------------

Water Runs Red – Chapter 32

Come morning, Tadashi woke up as the sun was rising. As soon as the jônin moved, Iruka opened an eye and disentangled himself from Kotetsu's limbs. Instead of getting up, the spiky haired chuunin simply rolled over and pulled a blanket over his head. Iruka twisted around and shoved the other man out of the bed, kicking him in the rear with both feet.

Tadashi simply raised an eyebrow at the thump and "fuck" that came from the chuunin hitting the floor. Iruka got up without comment and pulled on his 'merchant' clothes, while Tadashi threw on his own clothes. As Kotetsu was slowly disentangling himself from the blankets on the floor, Iruka walked over to the med kit. "Tadashi-san, can you make sure the others are awake while I pack this up? The boat leaves in two hours."

Tadashi nodded and left the room to check on the others. He knocked on the door and Kakashi opened it, gesturing him inside. When the door was closed behind him, he nodded to Kakashi. "Iruka says our boat leaves in two hours."

Kakashi nodded, a frown on his unusually visible face. Daisuke stepped out from the bathroom suppressing a yawn as he pulled on his shirt. Kakashi looked over at the still sleeping Izumo. The chuunin was snuggled into his covers wrapped into a fetal position, one fist clenching the blanket to his chest. Kakashi gestured. "He's been out since after dinner. We've been up for a while and nothing has gotten him to move."

Tadashi walked over to the sleeping chuunin as the other two followed him. "No sign of anything actually wrong? MABU sure seem to like their sleep."

Kakashi looked puzzled at that comment for a moment. "He's just sleeping as far as I can tell." He walked over and shook the chuunin's shoulder rather aggressively and Izumo simply rolled a little, entwining himself with the blankets in a most un-shinobi-like manner.

Daisuke looked at the two older jônin setting down a kunai with a bright blue ribbon wrapped around the handle; Kakashi wasn't going to ask. "Should I go and get Iruka?"

Kakashi nodded and Daisuke walked off to get Iruka. It was only a few minutes before Iruka walked in with Kotetsu following behind him.

Iruka frowned and quickly checked over Izumo. Muttering something about Ibiki being a slave driver, he pulled a syringe out of the med kit. As he murmured to Izumo, "You're going to feel a prick." He carefully inserted a needle into the sleeping man's shoulder.

Slowly the man sat up and looked around the room, sleepily yawning. "Sorry, I guess I over did the stimulants the other night when we left town." Iruka just gave him a quick pat on the shoulder as he told him the boat was leaving in two hours.

They quickly gathered up everything and left to find breakfast. As they sat in the back of a small café that Daisuke found, Iruka informed them quickly that Kotetsu's search last night didn't turn up any troop movements in the area and nothing of an unusual nature concerning trade between Water and Lightning.

They ate breakfast and then got to the ship. It was a standard cargo ship, crowded and dirty. They were able to secure a cabin for the trip, unfortunately only one, but the trip was a short one and they would be in port shortly after sunset.

Izumo immediately went back to sleep, which seemed to surprise the jônin, especially considering the amount of stimulants that had been pumped into him. Iruka decided this would be a good opportunity to get the jônin all used to operating the radio equipment, so Kotetsu and Iruka took turns going out onto the deck and talking to the sailors while the jônin got used to operating the receivers.

By the time they reached Water, all three jônin were confident using the specialized one-way radio equipment that MABU normally used. Kotetsu woke up Izumo once they docked without having to resort to injecting him with anything.

With transmitters in place but not activated on all three MABU members, they found a hotel and got two rooms. They made their way up and instead of splitting up; they all went into the first room. Immediately Iruka was all business, "All right. We need to find passage to Lightning. Kotetsu, that is your job and scout out the docks for anything unusual while you are there." The spiky haired man nodded. "Tadashi will monitor your signal. Izumo, you and I have information trolling."

Izumo yawned and nodded, "Which area do you want me to start in on?"

Iruka frowned. "Umm, see what the upper-classes in the town are talking about -- merchants, local government, and bored military wives, that type of thing. I would suggest somewhere that serves strong coffee. I'll start on the other end. Kakashi, you have my signal and Daisuke, you have Izumo."

Izumo grabbed his bag and started to dig through it. Kotetsu ran a quick equipment check with Tadashi before leaving dressed as he was. Izumo pulled out a haori coat and threw it on the one bed as he kept digging in his pack.

While Izumo was searching for clothes, Iruka grabbed some from his pack very quickly. He walked over to the bathroom and closed the door. Izumo remained in the room with the three jônin as he held up two different yukata as if trying to decide which would be better. With a yawn, he put one away and kept the less summery one out. Water country was always a bit colder than Konoha and summer was nearly over anyways.

Iruka walked out of the bathroom wearing a pair of low waisted tan pants with a mesh tank on top. He had a loose white shirt on over the tank, but the shirt was unbuttoned, adding to the casual look, he had also mussed his hair with some sort of product. Iruka walked over to his pack, ignoring the looks the three jônin were giving him and pulled out a tube of topical anesthetic.

Izumo looked up from slipping into the yukata. "Do you really think you'll need to do that?"

Iruka shrugged. "Might as well do it now instead of waiting until we get to our destination."

Izumo just shook his head. "You should have had Genma do it before we left then"

Iruka smirked. "I know, I wasn't thinking." He started to apply the gel to his tongue.

"Tongue? I thought you were supposed to avoid the tongue after the dentist yelled at you for chipping that tooth."

"I don't want to have to keep taking it in and out. I promise to be good." Iruka walked over to a mirror and quickly pierced his own tongue with an ease that could only be explained by having done it many many times before. He quickly placed a piercing in it.

Izumo turned once to make sure he had the yukata hanging right. He started pulling on the haori coat to go over it. "Which poison is in it?"

"One of the neurotoxins I already have a partial immunity to." He smirked. "I promised Tsunade I'd take less preemptive antitoxin and with this one I have enough of a tolerance to that I could last a good five minutes."

Kakashi was frowning. "You have the antitoxin on you?"

Iruka smiled and pulled up his mesh tank, showing he had two piercings at his navel. "Transmitter, Antidote."

Both chuunin were finally dressed and left, after making sure their transmitters were working. The three jônin were left to listen to three very different transmissions.

For the next several hours, they listened to Kotetsu hang around the docks in order to find a ship headed to the right portion of Lightning. Then the man stayed at the harbor for a while and found out various information about who was shipping what to where. Tadashi diligently wrote down all the tidbits.

Izumo was soon in what sounded like an upscale café. He was drawn into conversations about clothing and going into his cover story of being the eldest son of the owner of a trading company. Daisuke diligently wrote down anything that seemed like it might be information, although the majority of the conversation involved clothes and romantic intrigue.

Kakashi was listening to Iruka's transmitter and trying not to imagine the type of places that Iruka was at. He knew why Iruka dressed like that. He also knew Iruka was sexy enough to pull it off. Hell, Iruka was sexy enough it took a bit of willpower to not grab the chuunin and haul him off to the other hotel room.

All eyes turned to Kotetsu's transmitter. Evidently, there were Hidden Mist-nins in the town. There was a ship leaving tomorrow around noon that was transporting several shinobi evidently. It took a while for the chuunin to find any more information on the subject. Eventually he found out which ship they were on and that it was heading to the same Southern fishing village in Lightning.

Izumo's transmitter had gone relatively silent as it sounded like the man was headed back to the hotel. Kakashi was listening intently to Iruka's when he heard the man chatting to someone. Kakashi diligently wrote down the information that Iruka was finding out about troop movements. He was actually surprised how quickly all three men had found sources of information. However, suddenly the woman Iruka was chatting up said something that set Kakashi's blood cold. The female voice nearly whispered, "Yeah, I leave tomorrow, don't know for how long." The voice clicked in Kakashi's head as one of the Hidden Mist jônin that had been with the genin at the chuunin exam.

Kakashi sat up straight. "Fuck, Iruka found a Mist-nin." Both other jônin twisted to look at him. Tadashi continued to listen to Kotetsu's signal, but as Izumo got closer and closer to the hotel, Daisuke was listening more and more to Iruka's transmitter. Kakashi was gripping the edge of the table as Iruka and the Mist-nin left the bar and were walking somewhere quieter. As Iruka and the Mist-nin walked, Iruka gave a few location clues, but even with the map, it wasn't enough for Kakashi to know where he was.

When he heard a door close and Iruka say, "Nice room." He only had the location pinned down to about a ten-block portion of the city. The door opened as Izumo walked in and Daisuke quickly gestured him over and gave him a few sentence updated on what was going on. Then there was a loud slam over the radio. The woman's voice was low and gruff, "What the hell is a Leaf-nin doing here."

Iruka gasped and then growled, "Hiding."

"Like I'm supposed to believe you weren't sent to spy on us, chuunin."

"How do you know my rank?"

Kakashi was about to bolt for the door when Izumo's hand went on his shoulder. "He hasn't said he needed extraction yet. Trust him."

"I was in Konoha for your silly exam. Now answer my question." There was the sound of a body being pushed into something hard.

Iruka let out grunt, "I did answer you. I'm hiding – from Konoha."

"What would a little goody goody academy teacher like you do playing missing-nin."

"Fuck you!"

"Maybe before I kill you."

"Like I care. All you fucking jônin should just die." Iruka's tone was much softer than his words implied, almost challengingly seductive.

She growled low in her throat, "That's not a smart thing to say in your position."

"Fuck that, live fast, die young, leave a beautiful corpse and all that."

"How can you hide when you show of your body like that?" Her breathy words could hardly be heard over the transmitter.

"What do you mean?" His tone was guarded yet playfully promising.

"You scream Taijutsu expert. That is a body that was made for fighting with those muscles."

Iruka chuckled, "Heh, last jônin who talked to me about my body said I was made for only one thing too…" His voice was dropped into a low purr, "But he said it was sex."

In a husky whisper, she purred, "So why did a little chuunin run away?"

"Like you care."

"Tell me or I'll kill you."

"Because I was tired of being fucked with and fucked by a fucking jônin." His voice was low and angry, but with a hint of something seductive to it. Every syllable the man uttered was caressed with a promise of sex. "I'm not anyone's pet."

"So you want me to think you're worth having as a pet." Her voice had dropped down and there was the sound of rustling against the transmitter.

"I want to show you I'm not made for fighting." There was a definite tease to his voice.

"I'm not stupid enough to fuck an armed enemy ninja."

"What about an unarmed, ex-enemy missing-nin?"

There was the sound of kissing heard over the transmitter and Daisuke and Kakashi exchanged glances. Izumo shook his head. "Fuck." The normally polite chuunin brought a hand to his mouth at what he said.

The jônin all looked at him, Kakashi asking in an obviously too tense tone, "What?"

"He is going to extract information from her instead of just killing her."

Over the transmitter, Iruka purred, "You taste good." When she just laughed deep in her throat, he continued, "Truth serum always has that sweet taste doesn't it."

She did a sharp intake of breath and could be heard stepping away. Iruka just laughed, "I don't care you drugged me. I'm not lying. Want to give me a second dose to be sure?"

Her voice was firm but there was a hard to notice hint of hesitation. "Are you really unarmed?"

His voice was very low. "Let me prove it." The sound of clothes rustling was the only thing heard for the next few minutes. "Want to pat me down, see if you find anything?" There was a definite teasing tone to his question.

Her chuckle was low but got louder as she could be heard walking closer. "Nice, very nice." The sound of hands running over flesh was quickly followed by the transmitter acting up. "This is a surprise."

Iruka purred for lack of a better way to describe the noise he made. Kakashi's death grip on the desk increased. The sound of lips against lips was heard again and Iruka whispered, "Want to find out how good I am?" The slightly drugged sounding giggle at the end of that was impossible to notice.

Izumo frowned. "Sounds like a class C truth drug. Between the sweet taste and 'Ruka giggling"

"Guess it was paranoid of me to think you were sent to spy on what we were doing." Her voice was softer than it had been before.

"Why would Konoha care if you were drinking shots?" He sounded even more inebriated as time went on.

"Sexy, I didn't mean what I was doing in the bar when I found you." She could be heard kissing him again.

Izumo nodded. "I think he got the truth serum he carried with him into her."

Kakashi looked at Izumo. "But she has him drugged up. He took at least a double dose."

Izumo shrugged. "MABU forces are hard to drug. He's not giving up more than he wants to yet."

Iruka snickered. "Damn, if I knew mist-nin could kiss like that I would have gone missing ages ago."

She giggled, and the jônin suddenly believed Izumo's assumption that Iruka had also drugged her. "Sexy, if I had known you could kiss like that I would have spent my time in Konoha getting you to defect."

He purred. "I can do much better things with my tongue than that."

Her breath was a mere whisper. "Show me?"

"To bad you're leaving tomorrow. Wouldn't want to have too much fun tonight if you need to be in top form--" His words were interrupted by the sound of lips against flesh.

She laughed. "Like those med-nin need a jônin squad escort. Who the hell would attack surgeons going to Lightning?" Suddenly she gasped, "You fucker!" The hazy drugged sound of her voice was abruptly gone as she took a deep breath.

There was the sound of a struggle and bodies hitting the ground. The sound of grappling limbs could be heard as someone was knocked into a wall. Suddenly she screamed, then cursed, "Fucker, you'll be dead from poison in two minutes."

Kakashi was on his feet as Iruka laughed, "You'll be dead before that, bitch." Then he called for extraction saying the name of the hotel and a room number. Leaving Daisuke to monitor Kotetsu and leaving Izumo in the room, Tadashi and Kakashi streaked out the window heading towards the hotel room, barely pausing to catch the med kit that Izumo tossed to them.

Two elite of Konoha crossed the town in record time, flying from rooftop to rooftop until they reached the hotel and quickly searched out the right room. Kakashi found Iruka's chakra signature first and quickly entered the hotel room. Tadashi landed besides him with out a single noise as the two jônin surveyed the now demolished room. The mist-nin was obviously dead from the froth coming from her mouth. Unfortunately, Iruka didn't look much better.

Kakashi stretched out Iruka. The man was covered in sweat even though he was only wearing a pair of underwear. His entire body was shaking with his muscles spasming. The chuunin's hands gripped Kakashi's shirt as he struggled to breath. Kakashi was trying to figure out what poison was used. "Tadashi? Any idea on the poison?"

Tadashi listed off the top three possibilities from his inspection of the corpse. Suddenly Iruka spasmed and groaned in pain. Kakashi gathered him up in his arms. "Shhh, we'll figure this out, I won't let you die."

Through parched lips, Iruka whispered, "Med pack. Green Vial number seven. 13 ccs." His voice was so hoarse, Kakashi wasn't sure he had heard his right, and repeated it back. When the chuunin nodded, Tadashi pulled out the indicated vial and measured out 13 ccs and handed it to Kakashi.

Kakashi whispered, "Shhh, this is just going to sting for a minute, then it'll be all better." Gently, he injected the green liquid into Iruka's arm as he used his entire body to hold the spasming chuunin immobile.

Iruka buried his head into Kakashi's chest, still spasming violently as the jônin rocked him and stroked his hair. Tadashi stood up, suddenly realizing he was watching something he probably shouldn't and started to search the mist-nin and the room. Everything he found he placed on the bed. Once Tadashi was done with the room search and had everything, all the papers were photographed and replaced, then he walked over and knelt next to Kakashi.

The chuunin was starting to shake a little less and seemed to be in less pain. "Do you think we can move him?" When Kakashi nodded, Tadashi went and gathered up the chuunin's clothes and waited while Kakashi gently pulled the clothes onto the near unconscious chuunin.

Tadashi's suspicions were confirmed with the gentleness that Kakashi dressed the barely conscious man. He had seen the man do very few things with that type of gentleness, and handling injured comrades normally fell into the efficient and careful realm, not the gentle and hesitant. "Let's get back. I don't want to be here when her comrades come looking for her."

They left the room, racing across darkened rooftops with Kakashi carrying Iruka. When they arrived back at their hotel, the window to the room was open. Izumo had a med kit spread out and gestured Kakashi to put Iruka on the bed that had been stripped of all its blankets. Kotetsu was back and watching the events going on.

Gingerly, Kakashi placed Iruka on the bed. Kotetsu walked up behind him and gently led him over to a chair while Izumo examined Iruka. Izumo looked up. "Someone run a hot bath, almost hot enough to burn."

Daisuke got up to do what Izumo requested, tucking away a piece of blue ribbon. Tadashi placed a hand on Kakashi's shoulder. Izumo started to inject Iruka with several drugs. "He properly identified the poison the mist-nin used. I think he went conservative on dosing the antidote so I'm upping it. Also, I am slowing his metabolism and using another drug that should cause his body to expel the poison through his skin. It seems to have been inhaled and absorbed through the mucus membranes of the nose, mouth, and eyes."

Izumo continued on explaining what was stable and what was not stable with the chuunin's vitals. Suddenly he was pulling off Iruka's clothes. Daisuke walked back into the room to say the bath was ready, hand shoved deep in his pocket. Izumo nodded. "Kakashi, strip to your underwear."

Without questioning, Kakashi complied. Then he followed Izumo's instructions exactly, picking up Iruka and carrying him into the bathtub and keeping the water as hot as he thought could be handled. He held Iruka in the bathtub, cradling the man against his body and trying to keep him as warm as possible. Izumo said that keeping him warm and overheating would destroy whatever poison wasn't neutralized.

----------------While Kakashi and Iruka were in the bathroom --------------------------------------

Tadashi watched the bathroom door close as Izumo left Kakashi and Iruka in there. Izumo walked up to him, frowning. "The information you gathered from the room. For Iruka to have let things get that far, it must be important."

Tadashi nodded. "I didn't take the time to look at it. I'll start developing the photographs right away. It was all in code though; we'll need to get it to an analyst."

Kotetsu smiled. "No problem, Izumo is one of the quickest of us at analysis."

Izumo grabbed something out of the med kit and put a pill in his mouth, crunching it like a soldier pill. He helped Tadashi to develop the photos of the information then spread them out on the bed, and started to look at them, but from a good three feet away.

Tadashi looked over the paperwork but couldn't make any sense of it. He could tell it was all written in a code, but he couldn't make it out. Kotetsu glanced over at it and muttered, "Stupid Water code."

Izumo nodded, as he tried not to yawn. "This is crucial. The med-nins that are being escorted are surgeons. They may be sailing to Lightning, but they have three squad of Shinobi assigned to watch them, one for each doctor. They are headed to Sound after that. It looks like there is some sort of alliance between Water and Sound -- this isn't good. Our destinations are the same."

Tadashi leaned over the papers. "You mean they are after the Hyuuga's Byakugan too?"

Izumo nodded. "Almost without a doubt."

Daisuke sat down on the other bed in the room. "So we're in a race now to get the Hyuuga away from sound before whatever the doctors have planned can happen?"

Izumo nodded. "Unfortunately yes. And we are down our most experienced person, at least temporarily."

Tadashi walked over to stand closer to the bathroom door. "What is Iruka's condition?"

Izumo shrugged. "If he hadn't been MABU he'd be dead."

Daisuke turned to Izumo. "What does being MABU have to do with it?"

Izumo looked over to Kotetsu who just shrugged and in an almost bitter tone said, "They have a right to know, Izumo. Ibiki and Tsunade be damned. Yet another mission that went up in rank part way through."

The young chuunin nodded, "MABU forces typically start early, or are born into it. All three of us had mothers in MABU. All MABU members have a lot of exposure to poisons. We're third generation MABU, Iruka is forth. We've been exposed to antitoxins and poisons since before we were born. We've been in MABU since we were Genin. If you ever got your hands on Iruka's records, they should show his first successful S-rank completed when he was just shy of his second birthday.

"That's why we can play with poisons most Shinobi would be wise to avoid at all costs. We have a built up immunity. If anyone else had taken that poison blast, they'd be dead. But we don't have a lot of data on how someone like us takes a hit like that, so I won't know how he'll be for a few hours, but don't anyone dare tell Kakashi that. He's worried enough." Izumo frowned as he gathered up the photos and shoved them into a sack.

Daisuke nodded. "Can we ask why Kakashi is acting like he is?"

Tadashi shot Daisuke a look. "We shouldn't meddle in people's personal business."

Izumo sighed. "If we have to leave Iruka and Kakashi behind and continue the mission we will. They are an assigned pair for this mission so if one can't continue then neither can. As for that 'personal business', as stupid as I think this is, the Hokage says it is a no mention no gossip matter, and I've seen her seriously upset -- I wouldn't recommend it."

Daisuke accepted the explanation without question, but Tadashi kept his eyes on Izumo for another few seconds before nodding.

Izumo stood up. "I want to get Iruka out of the water and to bed. We'll have them here and the four of us will be in the other room." Izumo had seamlessly assumed command, and it wasn't until Tadashi was grabbing his bag that he noticed he was following the orders of another chuunin.

Izumo walked into the bathroom and could be heard helping Kakashi get Iruka out of the water and wrapping the unconscious man in a towel. He helped Kakashi get Iruka into the bed and started to pile blankets on. "Keep him as warm as possible. We're going to all be in the other room. I assume you heard everything?"

Kakashi nodded. "Yeah, I want to talk to Tadashi."

Izumo nodded. "We'll see how he is in the morning and see if he can continue. If anything happens, please wake me up."

Izumo, Kotetsu and Daisuke left leaving Kakashi and Tadashi as the only conscious people in the room. "'Dashi, I recommended you for this because I knew I could trust you. We're here to protect these guys, and they are thrown into these situations that no shinobi should be in on almost every mission. If Iruka can't go on, I'm going to need you to take over being their protector."

"What aren't you telling me? We were in ANBU together for a long time."

"The first mission I went on with Iruka… Tadashi, it was horrible. You know what I've seen so for me to say that…"

Tadashi nodded. "They aren't normal chuunin, are they?"

"Not by a long shot."

"He's special to you?"

"More than anyone, yes."

"Take care of him then, hound. Get some rest yourself. If these guys are half as tough as Izumo was saying, then this one will be coming with us in the morning." With that, he left the room to go sleep in the other room.

Once the room was empty, Kakashi curled up into bed with Iruka, snuggling the unconscious man close to him and not carrying how hot it was under the blankets. Izumo said the hotter the better. He held the unconscious man all night, barely drifting into the shallowest of sleeps, just feeling the ghost of breath from Iruka as the air passed his neck. At some point during the night, the breathing got more stable and Kakashi was able to sleep a little deeper. He could feel his lover getting better, as the night progressed,

_-------------------- Notes ------------------------_

_Only a few more chapters. Any unresolved questions or anything please tell me now before the final few chapters are written :)_


	33. Chapter 33

_Disclaimer – If I owned Naruto, the phrase 'well, it's better than the Star arc at least' would never have been uttered because the filler would have never happened._

_Spoilers – This contains spoilers for the anime and manga. Spoilers up to MANGA chapter 238_

_This has been a broadcast of the scribbles alert system, we now return you to your regularly scheduled reading_

------------------------- 33 -------------------------

Water Runs Red – Chapter 33

When the sun rose, Iruka seemed a lot better as Kakashi gently kissed his forehead to try to wake him up. He was pretty sure his lover was just sleeping now and no longer knocked out. With a slight mumble, Iruka moved further into Kakashi. Gently, he ran his fingers through the chuunin's dark hair. "'Ruka, love, how are you feeling?"

Slowly the chuunin's eyes opened, squinting in pain at an obvious headache. He buried his head into Kakashi's chest. "Too bright."

Kakashi pulled a blanket over them to block out the light. "That better?"

His head still against Kakashi's chest, Iruka slowly nodded. His voice was obviously hoarse as he whispered, "She put up a good fight."

He smiled as he held his now conscious lover. "So did you, so did you. You took out a Mist Jônin all by yourself."

"Nuh uh, needed saving."

"You still took her out. The others should be in here soon to see how you are."

"We're alone?"

Quietly, Kakashi nodded, his cheek against Iruka's temple. "Yes, have been all night."

Iruka sighed, "Missed you."

Kakashi's arms tightened around his lover. "I missed you too."

He held him close as the chuunin drifted back into sleep. All too soon, there was a knock on the door and then it gingerly opened. Tadashi and Izumo walked into the room.

Kakashi sat up in bed as the men entered, pulling Iruka into a position where Izumo could see him. As Kakashi moved, Iruka's eyes flickered open, and he dragged a hand up to put his forearm over his eyes.

Izumo kneeled on the side of the bed and pulled Iruka's arm off from over his eyes, apologizing as he did it. For some reason, Kakashi was reminded of that party all those months ago and how he had noticed Anko, Izumo, Kotetsu, and Iruka all had no concept of 'personal space'. It definitely seemed like a MABU thing.

Izumo finished checking over Iruka as Kakashi got out of bed and threw on his clothes. Finally, Izumo smiled as he looked at Iruka. "If you feel up to it, I don't see a reason you can't come with. It's a day and a half to Lightning, so I can't see you not being at least close to in mission shape once we get there, and kami knows none of us have been 100 in months anyways."

Iruka tried to smile. "I'll be OK. I survived how many years of Anko's cooking? What's a little poison compared to that?"

Izumo looked up at the ceiling and playfully bapped Iruka on the side of the head, barely enough to even move his hair, just to get the point across. "Let me get something for that headache of yours. The stupidity of having eaten Anko's food -- that I can't do anything about."

Soon they had Iruka patched up and on enough painkillers to be able to walk with the rest of them to the boat they had found passage on. Once aboard, Izumo and Iruka fell asleep, taking two of the four bunks. Kotetsu wandered about the decks talking to people and getting familiar with who was on the boat with them.

The three jônin stayed in the cabin. It had four bunks between the six of them, and Daisuke and Tadashi quickly figured out no one would care if they each claimed one. With nothing to do but listen to the transmitter that Kotetsu was wearing, the first day passed in the uneventful boredom that was all too familiar to the shinobi.

Izumo only woke up to eat, but Kotetsu assured them that it was normal. Iruka also woke up only to eat or to take some painkillers, but they all knew that was not normal. Kakashi stayed with him the entire time, as if he had always guarded the recovering chuunin. When night came, the jônin split watch between them, not even questioning that Kakashi was going to stay with Iruka. Of course, no one batted an eye at Kotetsu crawling into bed with Izumo after his long day of socializing with the crew.

The night went without any major events and the three jônin changed watch shifts without waking a single chuunin.

Come morning Izumo was marginally easier to wake up and Iruka only looked hung over instead of half dead. After breakfast, everyone seemed a little bit more like themselves. They decided that since they only had a few hours head start on the Mist-nin, the group should not stay the night in the town as they had originally planned, but instead immediately set out towards where they believed the Hyuuga to be.

It was early evening before they landed, and Kotetsu had managed to uncover some good news. There was a chance that the Mist Nin were going to be delayed because during the night a storm had been sighted just behind them, so with any luck the boat that the Mist-nin were in was delayed by the bad weather. Once they got off the boat, they made their way south of town before taking to the trees in the forest and heading towards the dot on the map that should be their destination.

The pace wasn't as hell-bent as when they were crossing Fire to get to Water. It was still fast though. Kotetsu and Daisuke were also being exceptionally careful to cover any signs of their passing. It would not be good if the Mist-nin behind them had a trial to follow right to them. They continued like that until shortly after nightfall. They were almost to the southern border of Lightning, so they called a halt for the night and set up the tents.

By unspoken agreement it seemed, Izumo and Iruka sat under Tadashi's watchful eye as the other three each set up tents. Within moments of stopping, Izumo's eyes started to close. Iruka thought briefly that he felt about as tired as Izumo looked. While Iruka was disorientated by his exhaustion, the tents were set up, and Kakashi helped Iruka into a tent. Iruka dimly realized he was being pulled into a warm embrace under blankets but was asleep before he could even think of doing anything besides sleeping.

One tent over, Kotetsu put a mostly sleeping Izumo to bed and the two other ANBU sat up, one officially on watch the other looking for a chance to talk.

In a quiet whisper, Daisuke leaned over to Tadashi, "If this comes down to a fight, do you think either of them are in shape for it?"

Tadashi shrugged. "I have no idea what their fighting capabilities are, do you?"

Daisuke shook his head. "Both missions I backed Izumo up on were near a new moon and the guy hardly slept. I didn't see him even touch a weapon or do anything beyond using chakra to make better time traveling. I have no idea what his abilities in a fight are."

Tadashi nodded. "I have no idea about what the fighting capabilities are of any of the MABU. I found a record of their chuunin exams, but it took place in Suna and the outline report didn't really say anything. Kakashi, I know a bit, but I don't have any worries about him holding his own."

"Even with his relationship with the school teacher?"

Tadashi nodded. "Kakashi is someone that can be trusted. I wouldn't worry about him doing anything stupid. I don't know if I can say the same for any of the chuunin though."

Daisuke nodded. "You should get some rest. I'll wake you in a few hours for watch."

Tadashi nodded and crawled into the tent to get some sleep.

The night went quietly, with the three jônin switching shifts for watch. When the sky was just starting to lighten, everyone was up and getting ready. With any luck, they'd reach their destination before the sun was down.

They were dressed in fighting clothes now; the need for their cover stories was gone. The two ANBU were in standard jônin uniforms. Kakashi had the contact out and his forehead protector over his eye and his mask back in place. The three chuunin wore their standard uniforms as well. The only differences were that Iruka had a holster of senbon on his thigh and Izumo had two pieces of leather wrapped around his wrists with sharp spikes on them.

The six men repacked camp and took off through the forest. Everyone had their chakra signatures covered. They traveled for several hours to get to the spot the intelligence had told them about. As they got closer, their pace slowed. Around three in the afternoon, they paused in a grove of trees. Kotetsu whispered, "I can smell something up ahead. Astringent, like a hospital, but something smells wrong about it."

Iruka nodded. "OK, we will start scouting now and make our move as the sun sets. Izumo, you rest until then. Kakashi, do you have a summons who will work well?"

Kakashi nodded, and performed a quick summoning jutsu, and when the chakra smoke cleared, a very irritated looking pug was sitting in the clearing.

Iruka smiled. "Good afternoon, Pakkun-san"

Kakashi looked at his summons. "Pakkun, I need you to do a quick scout of the area around the building about five miles to the west."

The dog grunted, "I see his manners haven't rubbed off on you yet." The pug may have complained, but he took off in the direction indicated without another comment.

The men sat in the clearing, waiting for Pakkun to return. Kotetsu was pacing and Iruka was digging through his pack for a ration bar. Both ANBU were obviously waiting for anything to come towards them while Kakashi was glancing from Iruka to Izumo.

Iruka opened a mist-ration bar and handed an extra to Kotetsu. He pulled out a map and started to look at it with Kotetsu. Kakashi kneeled next to Iruka. "What's up?"

Iruka was still looking at the map. "Trying to decide what the best way to get from here to Fire is after this is over. I want everyone to have a very clear idea of where we are going once we get the Hyuuga out of there."

Daisuke and Tadashi kneeled by the map as well, within fifteen minutes they had their best path back to Fire plotted.

Iruka then broke out the two way communicators, quickly getting them all calibrated to the same little used frequency. "We won't have much range on this frequency, but it should be more than enough for what we are doing. This will greatly reduce the chance of it being intercepted though."

As he finished handing out the radios, Pakkun came back to report. The pug walked up to Iruka instead of Kakashi, sniffing the chuunin. "You've been poisoned."

Iruka smiled at Pakkun. "Yes, I'm fine though. What did you find out?" As if he did this everyday, Iruka handed over a piece of jerky from his pack to the dog.

Pakkun looked up to Kakashi and started to detail entrances, when they were each last used and various other observations about the building. According to Pakkun, he smelt seven different people, but two of them were faint and either hadn't been out of the complex in several days, or had left and were not currently there.

Kakashi sketched out what Pakkun described and soon they had a good idea of the layout of the complex. They decided on a course of action. The three groups would split up in order and use the advantage of surprise to their benefit. Kakashi and Iruka would penetrate from the South, while Izumo and Daisuke would take the North. The west would be Kotetsu and Tadashi.

While Kotetsu and Tadashi were inventorying their weapons, Pakkun discretely walked up to Iruka. The chuunin leaned over to be at the same level as Pakkun. The pug whispered, "You smell like Kakashi."

Iruka nodded. "I know."

Pakkun nodded. "You're his mate."

Even though it wasn't a question, Iruka still nodded. "Yes, I am, and his love."

The pug snorted, "Don't hurt him."

"I can't promise." Iruka looked very serious. "Hurting him would hurt me as much though, if that makes you feel any better."

Pakkun nodded. "He's been through a lot."

Iruka smiled. "So have I. I love him. I can't promise any more than that."

"Good. If you had, I'd know you were lying." The pug turned to Kakashi, and at a normal volume, he huffed, "Are you done with me?"

Kakashi nodded a puzzled look on his face now that he realized that his summons and his lover had been discretely having a conversation. "Yeah, you can go."

With a poof of Chakra smoke, the pug disappeared. Iruka stood up and walked back to the rest of the team. "Kotetsu, why don't you wake up Izumo? We'll be moving out in about an hour so start giving him BRTs and CFSs"

Kakashi looked up. "What are CFSs?" He knew very well what blood replacement tablets were, but he didn't know why the chuunin needed them. "and why the BRTs?"

"Coffee flavored stimulants. We're going to be fighting and Izumo's going to need both to hold his own." Iruka flanked over to where Kotetsu was digging through a pack, "Izumo's fighting style uses a lot of blood." He kneeled at his pack and started to load up every pouch on his uniform with some sort of item from his pack. "We'll head out in one hour and infiltrate exactly thirty minutes later. Keep radio silence as long as possible."

Kotetsu returned with a now awake Izumo who was popping back pills and swallowing them down with water. Kotetsu quickly brought Izumo up to speed.

Kotetsu and Tadashi took all the packs after everyone had what they needed out of them and carried them to a spot that was marked on the map ten miles to the south towards Fire country in preparation for when they would regroup after the operation. Having to pause to grab the packs afterwards would be foolish.

The four remaining shinobi remained in the clearing, waiting for the other two to get back. Iruka started to stretch his muscles out, and Izumo was sitting perfectly still, barely breathing as he calmed his chakra. Daisuke and Kakashi did final inventories on their weapons.

When Tadashi and Kotetsu returned and reported no problems, they went through a final verbal rundown of the plan before breaking off into their two man groups to mount a coordinated attack on the facility.

The sun had set and the mostly full moon was high in the sky as the three teams got into position around the facility. There was no sign of life, but they could sense there were people in the building. Hopefully Pakkun's nose was right and the numbers were not too many.

All six shinobi hid in the shadows, cloaking their chakra as they waited for the designated time.

_-------------------- Notes ------------------------_

_Sorry for the short chapter, I needed to break here before the next bunch of scenes… plus half of 32 was originally in this chapter_


	34. Chapter 34

_Disclaimer – If I owned Naruto, Iruka Izumo and Kotetsu would get A LOT more screen time._

_Spoilers – This contains spoilers for the anime and manga. Spoilers up to MANGA chapter 238_

_This has been a broadcast of the scribbles alert system, we now return you to your regularly scheduled reading_

------------------------- 34 -------------------------

Water Runs Red – Chapter 34

Six still figures stood in the darkness of the forest. Their clothes blended with the trees perfectly. The shadows clung to them as if they weren't anything more corporeal than imagination and moonlight. They were Konoha shinobi, and the forest was their home.

Daisuke looked up at the nearly full moon -- only three more minutes before it was time for them to move. The building stood before them, quiet and dark, its façade in ruins. To the perceptive, and shinobi were nothing if not perceptive, the door of the building told a different story. The grass up to it showed subtle signs of wear from the passage of feet and the hinges were too well taken care of to make the charade of neglect believable.

He glanced towards his partner. Izumo was wide-awake. He was finishing the last symbols of a protective barrier he had set around the entire building. It was a very weak barrier, but if anything crossed it, the chuunin would know. The moon reflected off his pale skin and pale eyes. Daisuke froze, his eyes widening as he looked at Izumo. The man's normally dark eyes were a pale blue, seeming almost white in the moonlight.

Izumo whispered, "The door is surrounded by traps. You'll need to follow me exactly. I should only need to disarm about half of them if we are careful." With that, the chuunin carefully left his spot in the tree. As he crossed the open area to the door, he made clear indications with his chakra where Daisuke was to step. For his part, the jônin tread carefully, not one to risk deviating from Izumo's path.

Every few paces, Izumo leaned down and using a tendril of chakra, he disabled either a seal or a trap. The traps Daisuke could have dealt with, the seals – no one in their right mind underestimated a seal in Sound.

When they reached the door, Izumo placed his hand on the door. Slowly the seal on the door lit up as Izumo carefully put chakra into it. Daisuke looked at the odd design faintly glowing on the door; it seemed to be two seals within each other. Before Daisuke could get a good look, Izumo did something and the seal faded to nothingness.

Over the radio, Iruka called, "Door. Seal?"

Izumo replied, "Five in a six, standard."

Daisuke looked at Izumo. "What?"

"That should be enough information for Kotetsu and Iruka to do the same thing to their doors." He pushed the door open and looked inside. They made their way down the hallway towards a stairwell, checking each room they passed for anything useful. Still no sign of anyone inside.

Daisuke was about to reach for the handle of the door to the stairwell when he paused, "There is another seal." It had been a slight glimmer at the edge of his perception, but he hadn't gotten this far in ANBU by ignoring his senses. He reached into his pocket to run the blue ribbon between his fingers; he was always careful, but sometimes that wasn't enough.

Izumo repeated his performance from the entrance, causing this seal to fade away to nothing as well. Daisuke reached around Izumo and opened the door. Daisuke led the way down the stairs. For such a small looking building on the outside, it appeared to go a long ways underground.

* * *

**_Tadashi and Kotetsu_**

At the appointed time, Tadashi and Kotetsu made their way to their own entrance into the building. Theirs was an obvious service entrance. There were even cart tracks that led up to it. It was tempting to rush to the door, but both men went slowly. Tadashi disabled the twelve traps between them and their destination, and Kotetsu took care of the three seals without a single word. When they reached the door, Kotetsu did the same move as Izumo and lightly touched the door, causing the seal to light and be visible. As Kotetsu was inspecting it, the radios came to life.

Iruka asked, "Door. Seal?"

Izumo's calm reply followed, "Five in a six, standard."

Kotetsu nodded as he heard the message and without a word, carefully started to undo the inner seal first progressing slowly to the outer one. When he was finished, he took a deep breath. "There."

Tadashi nodded. "Nice work."

Kotetsu shrugged. "That probably took Izumo all of ten seconds and I'm sure Iruka could do both halves at the same time." He smiled. "I am definitely not the seals expert of MABU."

Tadashi nodded, a smirk on his lips as he led the chuunin into the building. The corridor was empty. Systematically, they searched each room as they came to it, not finding anything until they reached a stairwell. Tadashi held his hand up to it and illuminated the seal on that door. "It matches the other door."

Kotetsu nodded and took a deep breath before taking over Tadashi's position and spending another few minutes undoing this seal as well. Finally, they were heading down the stairs. Both shinobi keeping their eyes open for any traps.

* * *

**_Iruka & Kakashi_**

Iruka followed Kakashi to the door. The jônin had his Sharingan exposed and carefully disabled the traps and pointed out the seals across the terrain for Iruka to undo. When they reached the door, Kakashi shook his head. "There is some sort of inactive seal on it."

Iruka nodded. "It is probably set to go off when the door is opened." He carefully placed his hand on the door and Kakashi saw the chakra traveling through the chuunin's fingers and into the seal, causing it to glow faintly.

Iruka frowned. "A double seal … at least I think, and I'm not sensing anything more."

Kakashi nodded. "The entire door has so much chakra in it, and it's hard to make out if anything else is dormant, especially with the visible part being so bright now."

Iruka nodded and said into his radio, "Door. Seal"

When Izumo's reply confirmed their suspicions that it was just two nested seals, Iruka started to undo them. As Kakashi watched, he saw both seals unravel and fade at the same time. The inner disappearing a second or two before the outer. The jônin nodded. "Very impressive."

Iruka just smiled. "Izumo taught us well."

Kakashi followed the chuunin into the building, hiding his Sharingan to conserve chakra when he didn't see anything until the farthest door. He gestured to the door at the end of the hall. "That one has a seal, the others are clear."

They checked every empty room as they made their way to the door at the end of the hall. Carefully, Iruka repeated the motions of the outer door and the pair made their way down a long stairway. The stairway eventually ended at another door, and Iruka undid the seal on that one as well.

They made their way down the hall, carefully checking each room as they went. The third room they encountered had file cabinets in it. They slipped into the room, closing the door behind them and started to go through the files. They didn't have space or time to be weighing themselves down with too many files, so with the exception of a few sheets that looked crucial. They snapped pictures quickly of what else seemed important. Neither took the time to get a serious look at anything-- there just wasn't time.

* * *

_**Daisuke and Izumo**_

Izumo unsealed the door at the bottom of the stairway, and they both heard a faint something as he slowly opened the door. There was light trickling into the hallway from a slit under a door. Izumo placed a hand on Daisuke's shoulder, motioning for him to wait a moment.

As Daisuke watched, Izumo's eyes changed from pale to solid blood red. The chuunin held up three fingers and gestured at the door. Using scout signs, he indicated, "Three probable jônin, we haven't been sensed. No one else close by."

Daisuke nodded and took out two kunai. He gestured towards the far side of the door. As Izumo took an ambush position across from him, Daisuke positioned himself low and on the near side of the entrance. The door would open inward, and with Daisuke on the hinge side, he would have first sight and first strike at the occupants.

Izumo did a quick staccato tap on his radio before holding a hand up to Daisuke indicating to wait a moment. There were two answering taps heard over the headsets and then Izumo nodded and gave a go-ahead gesture.

Daisuke did a 'three two one' count down with his fingers for Izumo to see. With a quick chakra enhanced kick, the door went flying into the room. Without pausing, Daisuke was in through the door and with the speed the ANBU were known for; he had two Kunai in the chest cavity of one Sound-nin. With a quick outward thrust of both hands, he slashed along the ribs of the enemy shinobi, mortally wounding the man's lungs and most likely slashing his heart.

Without commenting on the brutality of Daisuke's quick kill, Izumo was rolling from the door to the table for additional cover. The second sound-nin didn't see what was coming as suddenly blood coated senbon were imbedded in the man's neck and face, piercing through his eyes and the arteries in his neck. Without even being able to breathe a word, the man was down, falling from his seated position to lie dead on the floor.

The third sound-nin immediately had his weapons out. Daisuke blocked the room's exit an additional kunai drawn. The sound-nin's eyes darted from Izumo to Daisuke as if sizing up the opposition. Suddenly something in the room felt 'off'.

Izumo's sharp intake of breath was the first noise to break the silence. "He has a seal on him." Without another word, he threw a kunai at the sound-nin. Daisuke only just had time to notice it was already covered in blood when it left the chuunin's hand.

The sound-nin raised up his arm as the kunai came towards him, a blast of air suddenly rushed towards the kunai and Izumo. The chuunin was thrown back three feet into a wall by the blast, but the kunai's path stayed true. As the blade sunk into the arm of the sound-nin, Daisuke took a split second to note the look of surprise and that the black marks of the seal on the sound-nin started to retreat. Then he saw it, a thin trickle of chakra and blood going from the kunai to Izumo.

Without another pause, Daisuke charged. He didn't know how much time the chuunin could buy him, or how much of a distraction it would be, but he went forward with his ANBU katana. His blow was barely deflected from its intended target, but he scored a large slash across the target's upper arm. Blood flew from the cut, arcing though the air until splashing against the previously pristine wall.

The sound-nin stabbed at Daisuke with a previously hidden Kunai, nailing him in the lower arm as Daisuke failed to completely block the blow. As the sound-nin twisted the blade, Daisuke threw himself back with a kick to the enemy.

Izumo used chakra on his foot to grab one of the senbon that littered the floor and propelled it towards the Sound-nin's throat. Still distracted by the near fatal blow by Daisuke, the Sound-nin barely avoided a critical hit from the projectile. He didn't get a chance to dodge anything else.

In a fluid movement, Daisuke brought his katana around and through the gut of his opponent. Charging the blade with chakra, he pulled it up and into the chest cavity. With a wet gasp, the curse seal retreated from the enemy's body as he slid off Daisuke's weapon into a bloody mess on the floor.

Izumo stood and started to gather up weapons and search the corpses, his shoulder and back obviously sore from where he hit the wall. Daisuke stood there, his wounded arm bleeding all over his hand. As his blood dripped onto the body he stood over, he kicked the corpse at his feet before muttering, "I hope you never find peace, you bastards"

Izumo looked over to Daisuke and frowned, moving over to bandage the other man's arm. "I'm sorry." When the other man didn't say anything, he quickly finished the quick field dressing before continuing, "She was very brave."

He just hmphed as he put his glove back on his wounded hand. "Yeah, look what it got her. Just another name on that damn stone." He stood once the search was complete. "I didn't find anything, let's get going." As he left the room, his hand was back in his pocket feeling the ribbon.

Izumo did a quick series of taps on the radio and then quickly followed. Daisuke assumed it was some sort of code, and just ignored it as they made their way down the hallway, checking all the rooms as they went.

* * *

**_Kotetsu and Tadashi_**

The two men slowly made their way down the staircase. They reached a door at the bottom and Kotetsu checked it for another seal, but the check came back clean. Carefully, they opened the door and crept into the hallway. Suddenly, Kotetsu stopped and smelt the air, he looked around and the started to walk towards a door.

Tadashi followed him. "What is it?"

Kotetsu sniffed again. "I smell something dead." He opened one of the doors that lined the hallway. They walked in to the room; the scent of rotting flesh permeated the interior. Along the wall were glass containers. They contained things that neither man recognized. Tadashi took pictures as Kotetsu inspected the room. In a closet, he found a wooden chest. The smell was definitely coming from inside.

Kotetsu carefully opened the trunk and gasped at what he saw. When he opened his mouth, the stench hit him strong enough he could taste it, and he had to back away quickly in order to avoid vomiting.

Tadashi was quickly over and looking into the trunk after making sure that Kotetsu was all right. When the jônin looked into the box, his stomach turned. The contents were unmistakable, even in their current condition. The Konoha swirl on the shoulders of a uniform with one arm still in it couldn't be mistaken for anything except what it was. It was only part of a body, chuunin from the looks of the uniform. The skin was long rotted and identification was impossible. There was one arm and two legs as well as the other hand. The cuts appeared to be made with something extremely sharp.

Tadashi grunted. "It's not a full body." He pulled out a tube of powder and spread it over the remains. Kotetsu nodded and stood up, watching the powder quickly dissolve the flesh and bone that was in the box. Tadashi shook his head, "I'm not sure if it does any good to destroy it after being in enemy hands for so long, but …"

A staccato tapping was heard over the headsets and suddenly, Kotetsu had a hand up and was listening intently. He then tapped on his receiver a very quick pattern that almost sounded like just a single tap. "Izumo and Daisuke encounter people. Three jônin, they are going to take them out." When Kotetsu looked at Tadashi, the concern was evident in his face. "We should hurry up."

The finished up in the room and quickly left in an effort to escape the smell. Kotetsu experimentally sniffed the air again once they were out of the room. "I don't smell anything else." Whereas that report would have been good news before the tapping over the radio, Kotetsu couldn't hide his concern at not being able to find his teammates.

They quickly went through the rest of the rooms in the hall before coming to another stairway leading further down. Just as they were checking for a seal, another string of taps could be heard over the radio and Kotetsu visibly relaxed. "Three enemies dead, no injuries to our guys."

Tadashi nodded. "Good. This code of yours is different from anything anyone else in Konoha uses."

Kotetsu nodded. "Yeah, it's ours. We came up with it when we were kids."

Tadashi nodded. "Smart move for genin to come up with a code like that."

Kotetsu finished checking the door for seals, but just prior to opening it, he smirked at Tadashi. "We weren't genin; we were five." With that, he opened the door and carefully made his way into yet another stairwell.

* * *

_**Kakashi and Iruka**_

Iruka and Kakashi reached the door at the far end of the corridor, and Iruka repeated the same procedure to remove the seal from the door. Carefully they made their way down the stairs, straining their senses to see if they could feel anything.

They carefully left the stairwell and entered another corridor of rooms. This place seemed more and more like a maze every minute. As they carefully searched the rooms for any clues, they didn't sense anyone near. They were going through another near empty room when they heard a series of taps over the radio. Kakashi glanced at Iruka, "A code?"

Iruka nodded as he listened. "Izumo and Daisuke encountered three jônin and are going to move in to take them out. That means if Pakkun was right, there are still four other people in here we don't know the whereabouts of." The chuunin quickly tapped on his own receiver, just a short single tap.

Kakashi nodded. "Is Izumo good in a fight?"

Iruka shrugged. "It depends, Sometimes yes and sometimes no. He is the strongest and the weakest of our group."

Kakashi nodded. "I've heard Daisuke has improved from the last time I was on a mission with him."

Iruka frowned. "I should have consulted you on our teams. I was too busy thinking of covert ops and not actual fighting."

Kakashi shook his head. "Your reasons are valid for assigning the teams. Daisuke and Izumo have been on missions together before. Teamwork can be a powerful weapon." He looked around the now cleared room. "We should hurry though. There are others in here, more than likely and we need to find the Hyuuga fast."

Iruka nodded and followed Kakashi. They finished the rest of the rooms and started down the staircase at the end of the hallway, still not having heard anything from Izumo. When they reached the bottom of the stairway, a series of clicks was heard over the radio and Iruka relaxed at the news. "Three kills, no reported injuries."

The next hallway was just as empty when they entered it. Iruka shook his head as they encountered yet more rooms. This time, Kakashi put a hand on Iruka's shoulder. He carefully made his way to a room a few doors down. Upon closer inspection, this hallway was different. The air was stale, and the paint on the walls was pealing.

Kakashi leaned down and listened at the door. Signaling for Iruka to be ready, picked the lock without a single noise and quickly opened the door. As light from the hall streamed into the darkened room, it became obvious that such precautions had not been needed. The room was evidently a medical exam room, if you could get over the filth of the place. The man on the table was obviously long dead. The stench coming from his corpse was putrid. As the two shinobi approached, the gaping eye sockets were evident.

As soon as he saw that, Iruka was beside the corpse, inspecting it. Kakashi scanned the body with his Sharingan, but was unable to see anything with it. "Is it the Hyuuga?"

Iruka shook his head. "Gatu."

Kakashi's head snapped up. "From our mission?"

Iruka nodded as his fingers ghosted across the man's arms. "This is Gatu."

"Are you sure?"

The cold look Iruka gave Kakashi made the jônin regret having asked the question.

Kakashi frowned. "I wonder why they killed him."

Iruka shook his head. "I wonder if they realize he was intercepted, or if he failed them in some other way." He took a deep breath. "Not that the bastard didn't deserve to die."

His look got distant and Kakashi placed his hand on Iruka's shoulder. "Are you all right?"

Iruka nodded and resumed inspecting the corpse. "It looks like it was a painful death. I think they took the eyes out while he was still alive."

Kakashi nodded, he couldn't blame Iruka for his reactions to seeing this man dead. Hell, Kakashi had wished more than once to be the one to kill him.

Iruka was still inspecting the corpse. "'Kashi? Can you look at this with the Sharingan? Does it look… unusual?"

Kakashi inspected the corpse. "It looks like they tried to remove more than just the eyes. Like they tried to remove the chakra pathways as well."

"Tried or succeeded?"

"Tried, they made a mess of it from what I can see, but I'm not a med-nin."

Iruka nodded, "That would explain the Mist medic-nin then. Hopefully the Hyuuga is still alive."

_-------------------- Notes ------------------------_

_Sorry this was delayed by not being able to post to more chapter and an epilog and it's the end. I promise to not keep anyone waiting for long for the end of this :) However, due to the uploading glich I am pushing back chapter 35 (the last chapter) to Sunday. The epilog will follow that by a day or two_


	35. Chapter 35

_Disclaimer – If I owned Naruto, Iruka Izumo and Kotetsu would get A LOT more screen time._

_Spoilers – This contains spoilers for the anime and manga. Spoilers up to MANGA chapter 238_

_This has been a broadcast of the scribbles alert system, we now return you to your regularly scheduled reading_

------------------------- 35 -------------------------

Water Runs Red – Chapter 35 – The final chapter

Kakashi led the way out of the room, anxious to get Iruka away from the dead body. Still keeping up the deliberate search pattern, they had almost finished the last of the rooms in the corridor when they heard footsteps approaching. The pair positioned themselves on either side of the door. From the sound of it, two people were quickly walking toward their position.

As soon as the footsteps passed the room they were hiding in, Kakashi was through the door to attack, instinctively striking the stronger of the two opponents. Iruka saw an opening. The smaller of the two appeared less dangerous, a med-nin.

While Kakashi was fighting the larger opponent, Iruka let senbon fly from his holster. The chuunin rolled across the hall as all the projectiles missed, dodging kunai by the narrowest of margins, still receiving a few minor injuries. The med-nin darted to the side hoping to find an opening for a clear shot at Iruka. The med-nin took aim and let more kunai fly. Iruka smirked when the man's eyes widened in pain as the senbon ricocheted off the back wall, piercing him in the back.

Kakashi lunged at the larger man, as the enemy shinobi activated a curse seal. A jagged blackness spread over the other's body as Kakashi fought with unnatural speed. The enemy nin flew through a series of hand seals, expelling a plume of acid from his mouth. Kakashi dodged the hissing stream of liquid by mere inches. With a mid air turn, he propelled himself at the enemy by pushing off the wall. The cold blades of his kunai imbedded in the enemy nin's chest.

It should have been a fatal blow. However, with the enemy's body changing shape as the seal went into stage two, the kunai were unable to reach their target completely. Immediately, Iruka was at the enemy's back, gripping the retreating curse mark with his fingers as he poured chakra into the man's left shoulder. Kakashi reacted instantly slashing the sound-nin's throat before he could turn to attack Iruka.

Both men paused to catch their breath and take stock of their injuries. Iruka briefly tapped out a message into the radio; Kakashi assumed it was to report two dead. He walked over to the smaller man. "You knocked him unconscious."

Iruka had his med kit out and was bandaging the kunai wounds on his shoulder. Once his wounds were bandaged, he pulled a clear liquid into a syringe. "I want to question him first so I used a knock out drug on the senbon."

Kakashi's visible eye widened. "Do we have enough time?"

"I'll be quick." He tied the man's hands and feet, so he couldn't move. Then Iruka stabbed the man's arm with the syringe and pushed the liquid into him fast enough that it would definitely bruise. He then took a different vial and filled the needle again, shoving it in about an inch above the first injection site. He pressed the fluid into the bruised flesh quickly and efficiently. He filled the syringe with a third liquid and injected the noxious green liquid into the man's abdomen. The syringe was filled yet again with a fourth liquid as the man started to wake up.

In a chillingly businesslike voice, Iruka questioned the man. Of course, no answers were forthcoming for the first minute or so, and then the man started to look uncomfortable. Over the next few minutes, the man's discomfort turned to outright pain and Iruka promised him that the pain would only get worse until he was given the contents of the vial. Iruka kept promising he could make the pain go away if only the man told them what they wanted.

Less than a minute later, Iruka was holding the man down with his whole body, a hand clamped over the man's mouth to muffle the screams of pain. Finally, they were told where the Hyuuga was being kept and that yes he was alive. They also found out there were only seven people plus the prisoner in the building, so that left two unaccounted for. This man was an assistant to Dr Inokuma and for a brief moment, the man tried to beg for his life.

_(A/N Dr Inokuma was mentioned as the person the drugs were being sent to in the Mission Iruka was on with Natsumi.)_

Iruka only shook his head as he injected the forth liquid into the man. In seconds, the struggling stopped, and the man was dead. Kakashi had been watching the entire interaction. He made a note never to think of Iruka as emotionally weak again -- he was definitely a very capable shinobi.

The chuunin stood and opened up the radio frequency. "Target is on third level down. Paths should converge there. Two enemies down. Keep your eyes open; still two alive." He then looked at Kakashi. "It's a very humane poison. It's my personal choice when I need to carry one."

He led the way to the door, not even seeing the second of surprise on Kakashi's face that Iruka would have a favorite type of poison.

* * *

**_Izumo and Daisuke_**

Izumo and Daisuke were finishing up the final room on the second floor. This wing appeared to be quarters, which explained the small kitchen where they had found the three enemy-nin. There didn't seem to be anything of importance on the floor. Just as they were ready to declare the wing done and move onto the stairway at the far end, the radio crackled to life.

Iruka tersely reported, "Target is on third level down. Paths should converge there. Two enemies down. Keep your eyes open; still two alive."

Izumo looked over to Daisuke, and with a nod, they started down the stairway to the third level. Daisuke noticed that Izumo's eyes were back to the pale blue they had been at the start of the infiltration. He wasn't sure which of the blood on the chuunin was from the enemy and how much was actually Izumo's.

As they were opening the door to the third level, they heard another door opening. Pausing without a noise and cloaking their chakra, they waited in the stairway. Izumo's eyes went to blood red and in the light of the stairwell, Daisuke was positive he could see the blood pooling up in the chuunin's eyes. Then the red drained away revealing the palest blue again. Except now, the whites of Izumo's eyes were tinted with red where several of the smaller vessels in the eye had ruptured.

"It's Kotetsu and Tadashi." He opened the door and led Daisuke over to the sound of the opening door. Kotetsu was the first one out and walking towards Izumo, Tadashi tight on his heels.

Kotetsu reached Izumo and quickly grabbed the man's chin, holding his face still and looking into the blood shot eyes. In a whisper, the spiky haired chuunin scolded his lover, "You need to be careful pushing yourself."

The four were quickly brought up to date on how the infiltration had gone. This floor appeared to be set up in a square pattern. If the other side of the square was designed the same as this side, then, Iruka and Kakashi should be coming down one of the other stairwells. They started to check out the rooms in a clockwise manner, with Kotetsu standing guard in the hall, as the other three each took a room, now able to cover the search much quicker. Half the rooms seemed abandoned and the other half appeared to be medical rooms of some sort. There wasn't time to do much more than grab a few items and photograph everything else.

They had covered one side of the square before they heard someone opening a stairwell door. The four froze, hoping it was Kakashi and Iruka.

The door slammed open and whatever came through didn't appear to be human. It was dark and huge. The figure charging the four of them looked to be a good eight feet tall and was covered with sharp spikes.

Kotetsu shouted, "It smells like poison, be careful."

Izumo started to fall back as he reported, "It has a seal, fully open. I can't do anything to close it. It has a weak point in its armor on its right shoulder." He brought a hand across his face to wipe away the blood trickling from his eyes.

Tadashi hastily made seals for an earth jutsu and brought the stone walls of the corridor in to smash into the enemy. With its massive arms, it simply pushed the rock back, hands quickly going through seals unleashing a powerful blast of poison.

Kotetsu grabbed a kunai and slammed it to the ground as he quickly pushed Daisuke and Tadashi back. The force of the explosion from the exploding Kunai shook the hall. All four were thrown to the ground, but the blast stopped the poison attack from reaching them.

"He's still coming," Izumo shouted, pulling Daisuke as Kotetsu herded Tadashi back down the hall.

The smell of Ozone permeated the air as suddenly a loud chirping noise echoed through the narrow corridor.

Kakashi and Iruka had just reached the door to the third level when they heard shouting and an explosion. Rushing through the door, they saw the enemy's back. Kakashi didn't hesitate. He charged forward, his Sharingan revealed as he went through the motions for his Chidori, slamming his fist into the hulking form as the sound of chirping filled the corridor.

As Kakashi pulled back, the hulking figure stood up, a gaping wound through its chest pouring the enemy's lifeblood onto the ground. The monster should have been dead, but it started to make hand seals. Suddenly a single senbon flew and hit the flesh near the wound, a thin trail of chakra and blood running back to Izumo as the chuunin's eyes bled and his hand holding the chakra cord leaked red fluid to the floor.

Kotetsu and Iruka moved without thinking in response to Izumo's attack. They both knew the Kamizuki couldn't keep up his hold on the advanced seal for long. Iruka peppered one side of the enemy with senbon dripping in a thick green poison and Kotetsu went flying towards the enemy's head, nailing it with a chakra-enhanced kick that should have shattered skull and vertebra. Both attacks hit as the seal started to recede from stage two to stage one. As the dead body fell, it reverted from its monstrous form to that of a human. Iruka inspected the corpse as Kotetsu hurried over to Izumo.

The young chuunin was trying to wipe the blood from his eyes. Daisuke leaned next to Izumo as well, helping to clean up the chuunin. Daisuke brushed blood off Izumo's cheeks. "Are you OK?"

Izumo nodded. "Just have to get the blood out of my eyes. I can't see."

Kotetsu was still gingerly helping to get the blood off of Izumo's face. "I told you not to overdo it."

Izumo was blinking to clear his eyes as Tadashi, Kakashi, and Iruka finished inspecting the corpse. He pointed. "I see something." Feeling his way along the wall, the Chuunin led the way, a hand constantly in touch with the wall. The others could see that Izumo's eyes were still filled with blood, blinding him. He reached a door and held up two fingers, pointing at it before falling back to let the others go through.

Izumo continued to try to get the blood from his eyes as Daisuke sat next to him attempting to help. The other four burst through the door. The two in the hall heard a brief struggle, followed by Tadashi cursing.

Izumo made his way into the room as the blood cleared from his eyes. There was a man on the floor, wearing a medical coat, a kunai still gripped in his hand. The other four were standing looking at what was on the table.

On the table with Iruka's hand over his forehead a figure laid hooked to multiple IVs. Izumo walked up to the man hearing his moan of pain. The seal of the branch house on the figure's forehead was unmistakable.

Tadashi quickly checked over the Hyuuga. The ANBU looked grim as he looked over to Kakashi and shook his head. This was where the rest of the body from the trunk he and Kotetsu had found earlier was. Even after his years in ANBU, the fact someone could do this to another person was almost more than Tadashi could understand. The only limb the man still had was the one the IVs were in. With no legs to run, and no hands to form seals with, the man was helpless to do anything except activate his Byakugan.

Iruka was in his med kit, gently inserting a syringe into the man's arm. Slowly the Hyuuga woke up as Izumo adjusted some of the IVs. The three jônin stood back with Kotetsu as the other two MABU went to work with the drugs streaming into the Hyuuga.

Izumo frowned, his face still plastered with blood, but his eyes clear enough to see out of. "I have everything except the painkiller turned off."

Iruka's voice was soft. "Hyuuga-san, can you hear me?"

Slowly pale eyes opened. "I won't tell you anything."

Iruka frowned. "We're from Konoha. We came as soon as we found out about you." The sadness in his voice wasn't hidden.

Izumo's eyes suddenly went red again, blood running down his cheeks. "The barrier was just broken. More than six, I can't tell more than that."

Kakashi stepped forward. "We have to get out of here."

The Hyuuga looked around. "Kakashi?" His voice was harsh from his treatment.

Kakashi's eyes narrowed. "Hotaka-san?"

"I knew someone would come." He shuddered. "Kill me. I can't let them get the Byakugan."

Iruka looked down. "There isn't anything we can do for him. Off the machine's he'll die – painfully."

Kakashi nodded. "Iruka, make it painless." He placed his hand on the Hyuuga's shoulder, "We'll protect your family's secret. " He nodded to Iruka who injected the Hyuuga with a clear liquid. In seconds, the Hyuuga's body relaxed.

Tadashi was glancing at the door. "We need to get out of here."

"Daisuke, give me your Katana." Iruka's voice was eerily calm.

The younger ANBU handed his weapon over without a pause and Iruka gripped it, bringing it swiftly down over the Hyuuga's throat.

The other five looked at him with something akin to shock. Iruka pulled a thermal blanket out of his pack and wrapped the head up, placing it in his pack with an explosive tag. "If I release the tag, it'll be destroyed, but we need to try to get the eyes back to Konoha to be inspected by the med-nins."

Tadashi and Kakashi recovered first, Both spreading a fluid on the Hyuuga's body to dissolve it. Any secretes that hadn't been discovered, would now be erased before anyone could uncover them.

They made their way to the door, Izumo and Kotetsu setting up seals as they made their way out. Kakashi watched as the two chuunin worked perfectly, setting the explosive seals. These weren't standard explosive tags -- these were much more powerful and linked to Izumo's chakra with the man's blood so they could be controlled remotely. The six ran up the stairs, trying to get out of there. Without a word passed between them, they headed for the stairway none of them had come down. The hope was that the incoming people would go to one of the entrances that they had used to get in.

Izumo threw himself at the seals on the doors, his now bloody hands undoing seals almost as fast as he could touch them. Their plan paid off and they reached the open air of outside. The sky was obscured by thick clouds unleashing a cold drizzle onto the six shinobi exhausted from their escape.

With as much speed as possible, they took off in pairs towards Konoha. Daisuke kept a careful eye on Izumo. The man was trailing blood from his hands and eyes as he ran through the trees. Blood mixing with water as it ran in red streams across the chuunin's clothes. How Izumo could even see, was unclear.

They didn't get far before they could sense pursuers. They were running as fast as they could, but it wasn't being fast enough, their pursuers were fast. Kunai and shuriken were flying through the air. Tadashi and Kakashi both started to return fire, their kunai charged with chakra.

Izumo stopped on a branch and flew through hand seals, blood running from his eyes as the chakra built in his body. He slashed through the fabric of his sleeves with the blades on his wrists and flung his arms towards the enemy. Blood flew from his arms in glistening red sheet as it separated, forming Senbon shaped projectiles. Hundreds of needles flew from his body, draining most of the blood from the chuunin.

Kakashi watched the jutsu, seeing how it infused chakra into each blood senbon, making them hard to deflect and deadly accurate. Kotetsu jumped behind Izumo and hauled him up onto his shoulder, as the man was no longer able to run.

Kakashi appraised the damage and gestured them to go on and that he'd catch up. Iruka stayed, but the other four ran off. Kakashi hissed, "Izumo's attack took out six." Suddenly the enemies were upon them and Kakashi went through hand seals quickly. "Suiryudan no Jutsu." The dragon made of water slammed into the enemy. Iruka threw chakra-enhanced weapons at the foes, thick poison dripping from them, so even a scratch would be fatal.

Their attacks took out another three, but Iruka was not able to completely dodge a rain of shuriken. The chuunin took three to his already wounded left shoulder. Kakashi grabbed his boyfriend by the other shoulder and dashed off with him. They hurried through the trees, Iruka right on Kakashi's heels, letting the jônin select the fastest route. They were almost to the meeting spot, when Kakashi announced, "They aren't following us."

They landed in the rain-soaked clearing, Iruka's shoulder bleeding and coating his chest in red. Izumo was spread out on the ground and Kotetsu was stopping the bleeding from his arms as the rain washed blood from the barely conscious man, running down his clothes in red stained rivers. Kakashi started to strip off Iruka's uniform to check the wounds, barking orders to Tadashi. The MABU forces kept quiet, letting the jônin do their job. "Tadashi." Kakashi's voice was in his calm battle mode. "Izumo took out six and we took out another three. There are six still out there but I am not sure if they are following us. Get everyone ready to move out"

Izumo gasped unexpectedly, "Someone entered the building." He closed his eyes and let out a breath. Faintly in the distance, an explosion could be heard. The blood was now flowing from Izumo's eyes, draining as he passed out lying on the ground in a blood stained puddle.

Kotetsu wiped the blood from his lover's face. "I can carry him."

They were all wounded and exhausted to some extent, but Iruka and Izumo had taken the worst of the damage. Kakashi was bandaging up Iruka's shoulder. Tadashi and Daisuke grabbed their partner's packs and Kakashi was about to do the same when Iruka put his hand out. "If it gets too far from me, it'll explode."

With a nod, they were off towards the Fire border. When they crossed the border, they didn't dare stop. They were too close to Sound still for comfort. Finally, they paused at dawn. If they kept up their pace they could be back to Konoha by sunset. The jônin were still going strong, but Iruka and Kotetsu were drained. Undoing the door seals had taken more out of them than either wanted to admit. They filled water canteens and inhaled some chakra powder before telling the jônin they could both continue.

They ran on with their hell-bent pace towards Konoha, knowing each stride brought them closer to safety. Finally a little after noon, they reached a Konoha patrol. They made their way safely into the village just after sunset. ANBU led them to the Hokage's office where they were debriefed. Packs of paper and rolls of film were turned over.

The remains of the Hyuuga were turned over to the medic nins and the six were given some time off. They left the office without a word. Izumo had been healed enough by Tsunade to be able to walk. He placed a hand on Daisuke's shoulder, squeezing slightly as they left the office.

Daisuke left to go to the monument. Pulling the blue ribbon from his pocket, he kneeled in front of the cold stone, telling the ribbon's owner how they stopped a plot by the people who killed her.

Tadashi went to the ANBU building and slammed a report on his superior's desk of what ANBU needed to do to be more capable of carrying out missions. The codes and coordination undercover of MABU did not go unnoticed by the ANBU veteran.

Izumo was led back to his home by Kotetsu, the blood washed from him until his eyes were no longer stained and his palms stopped seeping the red fluid. He was then put to bed.

Kotetsu snuggled into bed with his lover, he hated when Izumo had to use his attack. It was the strongest attack the MABU forces had, but it also left the chuunin weak as a child for days. That was all right though; Kotetsu would take care of him.

Iruka walked home with Kakashi. They walked next to each other, not touching, not talking. Just two comrades, the only way the Hokage would let them be together. In a few days he would find out the Byakugan was safe, its secret hadn't been unraveled. Hyuuga Hotaka's name was written on the memorial stone. It was another successful mission for MABU.

Kakashi enjoyed his time off by pretending the Hokage's order didn't exist. As long as he stayed behind closed doors, he could fully enjoy the man he was in love with. It wasn't perfect, but it was the closest he had felt in a long time.

Konoha was safe for the time being. The alliance between Sound and Water crumbled at the destruction of the jônin squads and medics. Lightning backed off its support to Sound as well, -- Lightning's relationship with Water was much more important then the relationship to Sound according to their diplomats.

For now, Konoha was safe. A young ANBU still mourned the death of a girl with a blue ribbon in her hair. ANBU was receiving additional training now from MABU forces. Kakashi and Iruka were a carefully kept secret.

THE END (Except for the epilogue)

_-------------------- Notes ------------------------_

Thanks to everyone who has read this far. It means a lot to me that so many people enjoyed this story. Feel free to drop me a message, I wrote this to be read, so I would love to hear what people think. The epilogue will be posted 24 hours from this being posted


	36. Epilogue

_Disclaimer – If I owned Naruto, Iruka Izumo and Kotetsu would get A LOT more screen time. _

_Spoilers – This contains spoilers for the anime and manga. Spoilers up to MANGA chapter 238 _

_This has been a broadcast of the scribbles alert system, we now return you to your regularly scheduled reading _

_Flashbacks are in italics_

**Water Runs Red - The Epilogue**

For the past six months, Kakashi had been working Iruka to exhaustion getting him prepared to take his jônin test. While Kakashi was worried that the chuunin might not pass it, Iruka has no doubts. He had several tricks up his sleeve that he had never shown the copy-nin.

His taijutsu training with Gai-sensei (whenever Kakashi was away on a mission) was one of his secrets. Gai didn't even know that he was training Iruka. He only knew that Ibiki had requested he train a member of MABU who always showed up in complete uniform. The second was the chakra control exercises with Izumo when the mission desk was slow. The mind games he learned from Anko were his third secret, and he knew he'd be using all three for his testing.

Iruka was walking down the main street of Konoha with Kakashi as they made their way to one of the administrative buildings. He knew walking like this bothered him much more than Kakashi. His lover could live a lie his entire life and not be phased by it. Iruka on the other hand was being torn apart by the separate apartments and treating each other like nothing but acquaintances when they saw each other on the street.

While relationships between two men were not unknown amongst the ninja ranks, to people who knew all too well their own mortality, gender was irrelevant. However, the majority of the village was not as accepting; especially the older villagers who had pull on the council. With the differences in rank and status between the two men, the council's opinions became even more difficult. Once you added in the fact that Iruka was a covert operative for the MABU force, prudence was definitely the wisest course. However, Iruka's heart couldn't handle that.

Pass or fail the jônin testing, this was the last day of the lie. In a few short hours, the secret would be out. Not that the secret was that well kept in the first place, all of their close friends knew, but all of their close friends could be trusted and it never reached the gossip network. It was amazing that so many people could keep such a juicy secret for over a year.

As they walked down the hallway to the room the testing would take place in, Iruka briefly grabbed Kakashi's left hand and squeezed it. He could feel the firm piece of metal under the other man's glove and smiled.

Tsunade-sama had given them two weeks of vacation to prepare for the test. They had done something much different than training though. They had trudged halfway across Fire country to an out of the way shrine on a mountaintop. Kakashi had saved the life of the priest there years ago.

_It was the hottest part of the summer, and few, if any, would be stupid enough to be climbing this mountain in the outskirts of fire country, but the priest was indebted to Kakashi. _

_Finally a little after noon they reached the top. The temperature was in the high 90s and the humidity was so high that the sweat was not evaporating off either of their bodies. Iruka glanced at his lover, giving him a smile. _

_They walked together into the shrine as Kakashi looked for the priest. When he found him, the man looked up, "Hatake-san, it is a rare honor for you to visit this humble shrine." _

_Kakashi bowed with a formality he rarely used. The ever-present orange book was nowhere in sight either. "Yoshida-sama, I have come to ask a favor." _

_The priest looked up, "My life was saved by you. My companions were saved by you. If it is in my power to grant, I gladly will." _

_Kakashi glanced at Iruka who walked up to stand beside him. _

_"Yoshida-sama, this is Umino Iruka, the most important person in the world to me." He took a deep breath, "In our village, due to our ranks and positions in service, our relationship has been forced to be kept in the shadows." _

_The priests lips narrowed, evidently he had a good idea of what Kakashi was about to ask. _

_"We wish to prove that this is not some passing fancy, and the passage of time does not seem to convince the people making us remain in secret. I don't care what they do to me for this, but I want to marry this man." _

When Kakashi had suggested getting married, Iruka hadn't believed the man could be serious. He should have known better, his lover never joked about those things.

When they had returned to Konoha, they both were wearing identical black gloves. Only two people in town knew the true reason for the gloves. They had told Ibiki as soon as they returned. With Iruka being in MABU, it was not optional, and neither was willing to commit a true crime just to keep a secret for an extra five days.

_After dropping off their things at Iruka's apartment and complaining about how annoying it was to have two separate apartments, but Tsunade had all but forbidden them from moving in together, they made their way towards the administrative building. _

_On their way there, they detoured into the ANBU building which held the headquarters for Torture and Interrogation. Both men walked towards Ibiki's office. Iruka knocked on the door. While they might have 30 days to report any changes to Tsunade, well 16 days now, Iruka only had twenty-four hours from arrival back in the village to inform Ibiki. The leash on MABU and ANBU was that much tighter than for regular shinobi. If Kakashi was still ANBU, they would have had to tell Tsunade in the same time period. Not for the first time, Kakashi was very glad he was no longer active ANBU. _

_They walked in to the interrogator's office together when they heard the man call out from behind the door. Ibiki looked up, "What do you two want?" _

_Iruka walked over to him and reached a gloved hand into the messenger bag he was carrying, "I believe according to the rules, as a MABU member I have to give you a copy of this within twenty-four hours of returning to the village. I want to assure you no one else knows and we are planning on informing Tsunade-sama after my jônin testing on Friday." _

_Ibiki looked up, suddenly very suspicious. Few things required the twenty-four hour notice. As Iruka pulled out an envelope with Ibiki's name written on it in Iruka's neat writing and handed it over, the man eyed the envelope as if it was going to explode. _

_Kakashi walked up beside Iruka and placed a hand on the younger man's back as a show of reassurance. No one would notice that Kakashi was pressing his ring finger against Iruka's shoulder blade in such a way that the chuunin could feel the ring underneath layers of fabric. _

_Ibiki opened up the envelope and pulled the paperwork out. Neatly paper clipped together was a form for addition of family member for covert operatives, a form for change of name of covert operative, and a form indicating an operative was preparing to relocate their residence. Ibiki's eyes widened as he noticed how all the forms were filled out. Hatake (Umino) Iruka. The final page was on a more decorative paper and was an official copy of a marriage certificate. Ibiki stared at the paper for a moment before looking up at the two men standing before him. _

_Then the man smiled, honestly smiled. Then he laughed, "So I take it the party after you pass your jônin exam is going to be multi purpose?" _

_Iruka grinned and Kakashi nodded. Iruka blushed slightly, "I was hoping Tsunade would make a little less of a big deal out of it if Kashi and I were both jônin." _

_Ibiki shook his head, "She's going to … hell, I don't know what she is going to do, but I want to see it. My price for keeping this quiet for the week is that I want to be there when you tell her." He placed the paperwork in his top drawer, "In return I will hold onto the paperwork for the two weeks I am allowed to sit on such things." _

The only other person they had told was Anko. Even Izumo and Kotetsu were in the dark on this one. They needed the help of someone to arrange the party, and the requests for a cake and such were just a little too weird for a jônin testing party to not necessitate telling her.

_"Anko, we need you to keep a secret until after my testing." _

_She smiled, "I've been keeping the two of you shacking up together a secret for months, so what's another secret?" _

_Iruka smirked, "This is a little bigger." When he definitely had Anko's attention, he started to pull off his gloves, the right hand first. "You know Kashi and I went on a well deserved vacation." He carefully pulled off the glove from his left hand, holding up the hand so the white gold band glittered. _

_Her eyes widened as she looked at Iruka's hand, then she looked at Kakashi, who was also holding up a bare hand with a matching white gold band. "You two got married?" _

_Iruka meekly smiled, "Yeah." _

_Kakashi nodded, "I know a priest who owed me a favor." _

_She looked back at Iruka who was pulling out photos and placing them on the table in front of Anko. She picked them up and looked at them, "Oh my. You both look… You really … Wow." She shut up, for once at a loss for words. She looked through the pictures, flipping from one to the next. Finally, she looked up at Iruka and threw herself at him in a hug, "I am so happy for you." When she let go of the chuunin she looked over to Kakashi, "Who woulda thought you could clean up so well." _

_He smirked, "Well, I had to. I couldn't ruin it for Iruka. We're going to tell everyone at Iruka's 'congratulations you survived your jônin test' party." _

_Iruka got himself out of the hug, "That's why we needed to tell you early. We need someone to make sure the party is appropriate and everything." _

_She smiled, "Well, you know you both will need to get dressed up again." She was practically bouncing, "I can't wait to see you both dressed up." _

_Iruka smiled, "Remember, this is a secret. Not even Izumo or Kotetsu know." He looked at Anko, "We'll be telling Tsunade-sama at the party, less chance of her doing something horrible in public. The only person that knows besides you is Ibiki." _

They reached a small room off the main testing area. Jônin testing was usually done underground. While chuunin testing was for showing off, there was no point in letting other countries know the capabilities of your jônin.

Tsunade walked in "I got the invitation to your 'I survived my jônin testing party' the show up pass or fail was a cute touch."

Iruka smiled, "It'd be a shame to waste the food and alcohol. Anko kind of went all out on it, you'll be there right?"

Tsunade shook her head as she laughed, "Anko made sure to point out the open bar aspect of the party. Does Ibiki know about the potential for that many drunken ninja?"

"Anko has recruited him to help he set it up."

Tsunade blinked. "I see." She walked over to him and took his hands into hers, "Now I know Kakashi wouldn't say you're ready for this unless he honestly thought you were, but remember a lot of shinobi don't pass the first time. I'll be here incase anyone gets seriously injured, but please be careful."

He nodded, "I'm ready for this, Tsunade-sama. I don't plan on being killed or maimed until the party."

She nodded with a smile, "You will have thirty seconds to get into position once the door opens. After thirty seconds, a whistle will blow and then your opponents and you will be cleared to start fighting. No moves except positioning before that. There are three jônin there. You will have a maximum of thirty minutes. I have ANBU in the observation area that will remove anyone considered incapacitated. No attacking the ANBU. No fatal poisons and no attacking an enemy after I have declared them incapacitated."

Iruka nodded, "As you command, Hokage-sama."

She leaned forwards and kissed the top of Iruka's head when he bowed. "Keep yourself safe."

With that, she led Kakashi off to wherever the observation area was, leaving Iruka to watch the door. He knew there would be three jônin. If he took out one, he had a chance of being promoted. If he took out two, it was almost a guarantee. If he could take out all three, he was in.

He took a deep breath; Kakashi had only seen him really fight once on their mission to Sound. He had even held back in all the practices. Before he could think more about the man he loved, the door opened. Iruka was off. He sized up the room without pausing. It looked like a forest clearing. Trees along all four walls. A stream flowing through the center. It was one of the intricate fake rooms. The three jônin were on the far side hidden in the trees and underbrush, Iruka ran the other way and threw himself up into the trees.

As soon as the whistle sounded, he sent out a barrage of shuriken. But they missed their targets. He paused behind a tree as he felt for where the others were. He felt them. He knew two of them. He was in trouble. He wouldn't be able to take out all three. Typically, he knew the testing involved a ninjutsu expert, a taijutsu expert and a genjutsu expert. The ninjutsu would be his easiest opponent -- it was Natsumi. He hadn't really seen her since that mission to Rock, but he knew he could take her out easy enough. The genjutsu he didn't know, but the Taijutsu expert was going to be hard -- it was Gai. Even after all his secret training with Gai, he knew even holding off the man would be difficult.

He felt something in the air change. The genjutsu one had started something. He set out a string of kunai and listened to them hit tree trunks on the other side of the clearing. Not al of them hit though, three of them went right through their trees. Sure they looked like they stuck into trees, but he could feel them continue on their trajectory. That was where the attack would come from.

With a quick use of chakra, he created two clones. One illusionary, muddy and dirty with leaves in the hair, the other perfectly clean looking and deadly solid. He set them out towards the right, trying to get close to Natsumi. While he sent them off on their mission, he kept an eye on Gai. The man was holding back for some reason. He knew it was traditional for the opposing forces to attack individually before attacking all at once. Iruka however was not limited to anything like that.

He started to circle. The Genjutsu user was in the center, Natsumi to the far side and Gai was closest to him. With his two clones going one way, and himself going the other, he was leaving the genjutsu user uncovered. In a coordinated move, he went for it. He threw four explosive tags at Gai and charged forward kicking at the man and letting himself get thrown off into the air as the green clad man brought up an arm.

At the same time, his two clones moved in on Natsumi. The kunoichi immediately dispatched the illusionary dirty clone but she took a glancing Kunai blow from the solid clone before also destroying that one. As Iruka was flying through the air towards Gai's foot, he cast a genjutsu on Natsumi. The blade she had been hit by was poisoned, but only a sedative and unfortunately, with the glancing blow it wouldn't knock her out. It should hinder her use of the arm though and it would sting.

He made an illusion of her skin turning red near the blade wound. He tucked in to brace for a kick, Gai kicked him off into the trees. As he hurled through the air, he started to strengthen the illusion to make it seem like he had coated the blade with something much more lethal. He made the sides of the wound look like they were going septic.

As he was propelled by Gai's kick, he altered his trajectory to be towards the genjutsu user's position. As expected, the man was not looking for close-ranged combat and went at high speed towards the other end of the arena. As the man passed over the area where the initial shuriken had imbedded into the ground, Iruka released the chakra hold he had on them and the clear glass balls in the centers of the shuriken exploded, enveloping the man in a cloud of knockout gas.

Iruka smiled as he slipped into the trees, camouflaging his chakra and slipping into the trees. The ANBU came and grabbed the genjutsu user. One down two to go. He heard Natsumi fumbling with a med pack. He concentrated on the genjutsu on her arm and started to make the septic look turn necrotic. Her arm should be mostly numb by now. He was sure she still had use of it, but from the sounds of it, she hadn't realized the appearance of the rotting flesh was actually an illusion.

As he ran through the trees, Gai close on his heals; he added red infected looking veins going through her arm. He burst though the trees and let lose another string of Kunai towards her, trying to keep moving fast enough for Gai to not catch up.

Natsumi screamed as another Kunai hit her and caused the same stinging on her other arm. The panic in her eyes was obvious. Iruka had no idea how she became ANBU. She let out a stream of weapons and unleashed a huge blast of a water jutsu at Iruka. The water Jutsu knocked Iruka back into the trees, but he managed to avoid the majority of the weapons. A few shuriken grazed his shoulder though.

He stood in the clearing between the two stands of trees as the two jônin stood nearer the trees. Gai and Natsumi were standing about twenty-five yard from each other. He moved into a defensive posture, ignoring the blood running down his arm.

Natsumi laughed, although there was a hint of fear to be heard in it, "You aren't the only one to be able to use poisons."

Iruka smirked and ran a finger through the blood on his shoulder before tasting it. He named off the poison she used and shrugged, "I have a resistance to that one, Natsumi. You, however, do not have a resistance to what is eating at your arms. You actually seem unusually susceptible to it."

Gai struck a pose, "You have done well so far Iruka-sensei, but you still have two of us to fight and have used up nearly half of your time already. Come, use the vigor of your youth to prove to your precious one that you are worthy of the title of jônin."

Iruka smirked, "I only have one left to fight, Natsumi there is going to collapse any minute, luckily there is medical help nearby – they should be able to save the arm." He strengthened the illusion again to cause spots to appear before her eyes and make the necrosis appearance of her arms increase. He was running out of time and needed to do something to really get her. He threw a handful of Senbon at Gai, the green clad man easily avoided them and started to proclaim how Iruka would need to do better than that. As he was jumping back, he caused the illusion of one of Natsumi's fingernails to fall off.

As the woman's eye's widened at the sight, one senbon that missed Gai and bounced off a rock behind her was completely unnoticed. Her attention was so focused on her arm that the ricochet throw caught her completely unaware. Before she could get off another attack, she collapsed as the knockout drug laced senbon imbedded into the back of her neck.

Quickly Iruka fled back towards his original hiding spot, Gai on his heals. Unfortunately, Gai was one of the only people who was faster than he was. He was already almost out of chakra. Fighting Gai in this condition would not be good. He'd need to fight as dirty as he could. Jumping into a clearing, he threw a bunch of glass marbles into the thick grass.

Gai landed in the treetops and sent out kunai at each of the marbles. With perfect precision, the poison traps were disarmed in a cloud of smoke that necessitated Iruka jumping away. He threw the last of his poisoned tipped shuriken at Gai, trying to bounce as many off the trees and back at the man as possible. In a fluid motion that looked less like traditional fighting and more like a clan technique of the Hyuuga it was at such a high speed, Gai easily deflected each of the shuriken, even the bounced ones, without even seeming phased.

Before Iruka could get out of the way, he was being thrown back by a punch from Gai. His ears now ringing, he threw his explosive tag lined kunai. As expected Gai easily avoided them, but they landed in the dirt. As Gai nailed Iruka with another kick and propelled him into a tree, the tags went off. Iruka tried to dodge the punch from Gai as he concentrated all his remaining chakra into crating a dust storm with the dust and dirt thrown up by the explosions.

Using the dirt as a screen and camouflage, Iruka tried to dodge and back away. He was almost out of chakra and almost out of time. He was being pounded -- kicks and punches he could barely block. If not for the dirt swirling and decreasing Gai's accuracy, he would have been long unconscious. He was thrown back into another tree as the timer sounded. Iruka collapsed to the ground, breathing heavily as he let the dirt fall down. Suddenly Gai was helping him up and Iruka realized his gloves were gone.

He looked up into Gai's eyes. The man was congratulating him, but Iruka looked panicked. In a painful his he hissed "Gai, I need my gloves, I need my gloves, please help me find them before anyone gets here."

Gai saw the seriousness in Iruka's eyes and quickly helped the man find his gloves. Iruka had barely gotten his left glove back on when Tsunade and Kakashi got there. He could tell Kakashi was smiling from the glint in his eye. Tsunade's smile was obvious. She walked up to Iruka as he pulled on his right glove, "How are you?"

"Bruised up a bit, but nothing that will keep me from the party."

She smiled and started to put her glowing green hands on Iruka, "Wouldn't want you too injured for your party now, would we, Jônin."

Gai clasped a hand on Iruka's shoulder and looked at him, with a very serious look; he smiled at the younger man. "Congratulations."

Iruka let himself smile, "Gai-sensei, you'll be at the party right? I hear Anko got cake."

Gai nodded, "I will be there. I could not miss this announcement." With a very Gai-like pose, he smiled and left, thumping his eternal rival on the shoulder and saying, "Congratulations, It appears you have increased your score by one."

Kakashi quirked an eyebrow and looked at Iruka. The former chuunin just smiled, "I see being jônin sponsor counts as a victory." He fiddled with his glove so that Kakashi would know the truth, "Then again after the bonsai tree challenge nothing surprises me with you two."

Tsunade smiled at Iruka, "Your mother would have been proud. She only took out one of her opponents with weaponry. She did lure another one in though when she was playing injured."

Iruka smiled, "Somehow I don't think I'm Gai's type." He laughed a bit, "And Natsumi hates my guts."

She finished healing his bruises, "You actually didn't get hurt too badly."

"I managed to brace almost everything with chakra, but I was about to run out."

She smiled, "I'll see you guys at the party. I'm sure you want to get cleaned up."

Kakashi helped Iruka out of the arena and into the hallway. The older man looked at Tsunade, "We'll see you at the party."

Kakashi led Iruka to his apartment. His was closest to the building that Anko had reserved for the party. As soon as they were behind the door of the apartment, Kakashi was kissing Iruka. Their arms wrapped around each other. Kakashi looked into Iruka's eyes, "It's almost time."

Iruka nodded, "I told you I'd pass the test, now for the hard part."

"You were amazing."

He smiled as he ran his hands through that silver hair, "I had a great teacher, not to mention a lot of one on one attention."

Kakashi purred, "We should get cleaned up and dressed. I can't believe Anko is making us get dressed up again."

Iruka kissed Kakashi's ear, "It's traditional."

Kakashi purred, "I didn't realize how much you loved tradition."

"You know it's a tradition for a newly promoted jônin to have a wild night after the celebration party." Iruka's voice was dropped to a husky whisper, "Does that sound good to you?"

Kakashi run his fingers down Iruka's back, "Oh yes. But you had better go and get cleaned up before we miss your party, or should I say our party?" He gently ran his lips along the other man's neck, "If you stay here, I can guarantee we'll be late"

Iruka disengaged himself from his lover and walked into the bathroom to get cleaned up. It took most of the two hours they had before the party to get dressed. They both had other clothes packed. Even Iruka agreed that staying in formal wear for any longer than needed would be a bad idea.

When they arrived about half an hour after the start of the party, they could hear the sounds of their friends having a good time. They walked in through the backdoor into the room where everything was being stored. Iruka reached out with the slight amount of chakra he had left to find Anko. He felt his tattoo warm in her response.

Moments later she walked into the room, "Tsunade just got here." She stopped, her mouth open. "Look at you two."

She walked up to Kakashi, looking him over. "Look at how you clean up."

He smiled, although it was covered by his mask. He had one of his ANBU tanks with the built in mask under his white hiyoku. On top of that was a black silken Kimono. His hakama pants were also black and very formal. The short black haori coat over everything was emblazoned with the Hatake family crest and had an electric pattern along the bottom and stretching up to the chest on the main part of the coat and to the elbows on the sleeves. The blue was not lightning or flames; it was the unmistakable blue of the Chidori. Across the Sharingan eye, he wore a piece of black silk. There was a simple black katana at his belt with an electric blue ribbon around the hilt.

Anko then turned her attention to Iruka, and kissed him on the cheek. "You're handsome." She hugged him and looked over at Kakashi, "You better realize how damn lucky you are."

Kakashi nodded, "Much more lucky than a guy like me deserves."

Iruka walked over to Kakashi and kissed him, "That's how lucky I feel."

Anko looked at Iruka and helped straighten his full-length haori coat. "This is amazing." She straightened Iruka's hair, brushing a few loose strands behind his ears. His hair was down loose and hung to his shoulders. He didn't have on hakama pants; instead, he was dressed in what would be formal men's wear in Grass country. Except he was wearing something much nicer than Anko had ever seen in Grass -- this was probably a hundred years old from when Grass was much more powerful.

He was wearing a white hiyoku with a light grass green men's cut kimono. While the fabric of the green kimono was exquisite, it did not have any decoration. Nearly all of it was covered by a haori coat which went all the way to Iruka's ankles. The coat was embroidered more than enough to make up for the other unadorned garments. Where the house crest should be, there was an intricate embroidered stylized sparrow in browns and deep greens.

The bottom hem of the coat was decorated in tall grass in darker greens and golds and browns. The sleeves of the coat had artistically stylized winds with leaves flowing through the breezes. Nearly every inch of the coat was covered in intricate embroidery. The coat was held open on one side by the Katana in Iruka's belt. The scabbard was the palest of greens with a bright red ribbon tied around the hilt.

Iruka smiled, "Anko-chan, thank you so much for putting this together."

She smiled, "Whatever happens, I think you two did the right thing. You both finally look happy." She took a deep breath, "You guys ready?"

When they nodded, she walked over to the room that led to where the party was. She walked through to door and stepped up onto a table, "Everyone, you knew at some point Kakashi's lateness would rub off on Iruka, but they are here now. Congratulations." She started applauding and everyone else joined in.

Iruka and Kakashi walked through the door, holding each other's hands and wearing no gloves for the first time since they had returned to Konoha. There was a gasp and surprise on behalf of most people. Ibiki however had a smile on his face as he walked up to both men and hugged them.

Tsunade stalked up to them with Shizune in her wake. Without a word, Kakashi and Iruka both removed the swords at their belts. Only then could a person notice their forehead protectors attached to the swords. They both held the swords to Tsunade in their left hands. Iruka had a clean white envelope with Tsunade's formal name in Iruka's neat handwriting held in his other hand.

Suddenly there was silence. Tsunade took the envelope and the swords, looking at the two shinobi in front of her. She looked down at their hands. She looked back up at them, "But you promised."

Iruka smiled at her, "We did our best for over a year, Tsunade-sama. You have authority over us as long as we are your shinobi."

Kakashi put his arm around Iruka, "Thus, you have a choice. Let us be ourselves and be your shinobi, or we quit."

Tsunade ripped open the envelope. She scanned the papers before sadly smiling. The rest of the party was a blur. Tsunade had made it a point of fastening their forehead protectors back on each of them. Friends had hugged and congratulated. The cake was cut, food was eaten, and Kakashi and Iruka had both changed out of their formal ware.

They were sitting there, comfortable and slightly buzzed. Anko had not skimped on the alcohol. Iruka looked around the room. Gai had arrived a few minutes ago and was blathering on to Kakashi about how his eternal rival had beaten him in the most important contest. Izumo and Kotetsu had snuck off to a dark corner of the room. Tsunade was drinking and loudly proclaiming how she loved her shinobi. Asuma and Kurinai had even been spotted kissing.

It was one of the best parties Iruka had ever been at. Then he noticed something unexpected. He leaned over to get Kakashi's attention, not even carrying that he was interrupting Gai's proclamation about the springtime of youth and how it was meant for capturing the bloom of love.

Kakashi looked to where Iruka was gesturing. Anko was not being her usual outgoing, too loud self. Instead, she was sipping her drink and smiling. The true surprise was that it was Daisuke talking and she seemed to be hanging on every word. Watching the interaction of those two was abruptly ended when a very recognizable chakra presence could be felt behind the three men.

Gai immediately welcomed the woman, and Natsumi smiled at him. Then Natsumi's eyes fell onto Kakashi. Iruka didn't like the look in her eyes one bit as she looked at what was his. Now, sure, Kakashi looked hot in what he was wearing. He hadn't been with Iruka for this long without upgrading his off duty wardrobe, or at least knowing what he could borrow from the former-chuunin's drawers. He was dressed in his black ANBU tank with the built in mask. Over that was a loose dark blue shirt the same color as his forehead protector. The shirt was open, revealing how the ANBU tank clung to Kakashi's muscular chest. The loose fitting black pants he wore moved with his every shift in position.

None of that missed Natsumi's observation as she stepped towards him, placing her hands on his arm. Iruka assumed she had just gotten here, since he had knocked her out. He was giving her the benefit of the doubt that she didn't know she was hitting on a married man.

Iruka cleared his throat as the woman smiled a sickingly sweet smile and tried to get Kakashi to dance with her. Iruka stood up and glared at Natsumi. More than a few people froze to watch what was going to happen.

In an exaggerated formal tone, the insult clear in his overly formal phrasing, "Natsumi-san. I am sure you don't realize this, but you are not his type."

She frowned at him, giving him her best 'better than you' look. "Oh, sorry I didn't see you there. I don't normally notice people who use dirty tricks."

Iruka's mouth moved into a half smile, "A shinobi should take notice of details, and one of those details is that you have your hands on a married man."

She glanced down at Kakashi's hand as if to verify what Iruka was saying. "I think he can talk for himself."

"Let me make myself clear. Get your fucking hands off my husband before I do it for you."

She had the decency to look shocked. She also had the decency to pale and look almost ready to faint when Iruka brushed her aside and launched himself at Kakashi's mouth. It was the closest most people in the room had come to seeing Kakashi without his mask on. Of course, no one actually saw his face since it was quickly covered with his lover's mouth as Iruka wrapped his arms around his husband and kissed him with all his skill.

Leaving behind more than a few surprised people and quite a few people blushing at the intensity of that kiss, Kakashi and Iruka left their party. Iruka was after all a stickler for tradition, and tradition dictated that no one would disturb the two newlyweds for a while. Iruka was happy, the secret was no longer a secret and Kakashi was his. All other problems could wait because for the moment he had everything he needed.

THE END

The actual end, the real end, the it's over end.


End file.
